JeXPolis
by LanaaLuthor
Summary: sequel to JeXVille/ : Year 2135. Vitam Aeternam. The bridge between worlds. "People always think that they need to secure their future, but I... I have to protect my past." The invaders from space want to come back in time and kill Clark, what means death to all that he saved.
1. Chapter 1

**Description:** Year 2135. _Vitam Aeternam_. The bridge between worlds. "People always think that they need to secure their future, but I... I have to protect my past."

The invaders from space want to come back in time and kill Clark, what means death to all that he saved.

* * *

**Part 1**

_People always think that they need to secure their future, but I... I have to protect my past._

* * *

_It's the fatal flaw of men, repeated over and over again throughout the history. We never learn._

_Give people something and they will always misuse it, abuse it and overuse it._

_That was exactly what happened with _vitam aeternam.

* * *

**Year 2135**

_He was in me and all over me. He was all I could feel. He was the only one I could love. No one else but him. We were moving as one, claiming our release. He was smoothly pushing into me and then pulling out and pushing again. Hard._

_ With our hot and wet bodies joined, we had no idea where one ended and the other begun. It was a never-ending dance of desire._

_ It'd been so long and we were still together, still in love. True love was found only by few, but once gained, stayed forever._

_ My fingers brushed against his smooth skin, looking for the scars that were long gone now._

_ How had he managed to come up with a technology, with a cure that could fix literally everything was still a miracle to me. But it also came from the miraculous man. A man who'd once risen from the dead just to come back to me._

_ "Yes… Lex… Lex… love…"_

I woke up on feeling cold.

I instinctively searched for the other body in bed, so I could snuggle up to it and warm myself up a bit, but my hand didn't find what it was looking for. I turned over and opened my eyes.

What I saw struck me.

The room looked like a tornado had come through it. Our furniture, personal belongings, all was scattered and broken on the floor.

The bed was empty.

"LEX!" I screamed, sitting up on the bed and feeling the panic swelling inside of me as my heart started beating faster and faster.

There was also something else that attracted my attention. A blinking red light that hurt my eyes and I needed to squint in able to actually see.

It was the alarm, I realized after a moment. Only someone must have disabled the sound while the lights were still blinking.

"LEX!" I called his name again and jumped out of bed, running out of the bedroom.

The hallway looked the same. Everything was broken, scattered.

"LEX! LILY! ALEX!" I screamed the dearest names.

I was hurting my bare feet while running over the broken pieces of wood and glass, but I didn't care. I had to find my husband and my children.

I opened the door to my son's room. He was gone.

Then Lily's. Gone as well.

What happened? Why had someone taken them and not me? Why hadn't I waken up on time? Why hadn't I heard anything?

For a moment I just stood there, looking for clues, any tracks the kidnapper might've left behind. Only I knew it was all futile. After everything that had happened from the moment Lex had come up with that miracle, we'd been in a constant war. One ended, another one was starting.

I took a deep breath and screamed as loud as I could, knowing he would hear me wherever he was now.

"SUPERMAN!"

Soon, there he was, flying through the window to meet me.

It was a while since I'd last seen him. Now I was stuck by the expression he wore. He was devastated. Truly heartbroken like there was no hope for him anymore. And I knew the reason. Was it that bad already? I wondered. Why didn't he tell me or Lex? Why didn't he come to us for help?

Still, I thought I could answer those questions easily too.

"What happened?" Clark asked, looking around the mansion and X-raying what he could. "Where is everybody?"

"I don't… I don't know," I finally said, my voice shakier than I would anticipate. "I just… I woke up and they were… they're all gone!"

"You think someone kidnapped them?" Clark made sure, walking past me and into the corridor. He was scanning everything thoroughly.

"It looks like they were looking for something," he noticed. "Did you hear anything?"

"No, I just… woke up and found it all like this. I don't understand why I slept through it!"

"You were probably drugged," he followed with an idea.

"Clark, I need them back!" I told him urgently.

"I know, I know," he murmured under his breath. "I want my friend, Alex and Lily back too."

"Why would they take only them? Why leaving me behind? For ransom?"

"Maybe."

"But not likely. Any other kidnapper would never get into our house! We have the best security system in the world!"

Clark disappeared and then appeared again.

"Your security system is completely melted down," he informed. "I smelt a substance that doesn't belong to this planet, Jess."

"You mean… they must've gotten here through the bridge _you _created!" I accused him.

"I only did it, because thanks to _your _husband there is no room on Earth anymore! We need to get to know more worlds!"

"My husband is your friend! And do I have to remind you that you're the godfather of Alex?! Or maybe that you've got to keep Lois because of Lex?!" I knew Clark didn't deserve me pushing him into feeling guilty, but I was desperate. I needed my family back.

Clark closed his eyes for a second.

"Jess, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. I just…"

"Me neither," I sighed and then asked, "How is she?" Now I was concerned not only about Lex and our kids, but also about Clark's wife.

"Worse with every day. I don't know what to do anymore… I'm afraid she might…" his voice trailed off, the words refusing to be spoken out loud.

"You still don't want to try VA, do you?"

"No, because she won't let me. It'll probably heal her, but it might kill..."

"I understand," I assured him, because I really did. After all, I'd given birth to both Alex and Lily and I would give my life for them. For Lex, too.

Then it struck me that maybe I would finally have to pay the price for living so long with the people I loved. I'd been so happy for the last century. Of course, there had been disasters and dramas, but in the end I'd always had all the people I loved by my side.

Only on the other hand, hadn't we all suffered enough already? I'd spent almost three years knowing that Lex had been dead back around 2012.

"Let me take you to Watchtower. We'll figure something out then. Chloe can access the satellites," Clark suggested.

"Fine," I agreed. "Maybe she'll see what exactly happened here… And when I get there, you should really come back to Lois."

"She's staying there now," Clark informed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, she… she wants to be around friends."

"Clark, I'm so…"

"Don't," he stopped me. "Just don't. Now, hang on…"

We flew away through the very same window he'd come.

* * *

**Year 2023**

"Years of research paid off, honey!" Lex told me when he walked out of the lab.

"Really? So you actually have good news?!" I jumped from the chair I'd been sitting in. I didn't remember the last time I felt so nervous.

It was supposed to be a week just for us. Lex was able to take some free time and we had come back to Smallville while Lily and Alex had been staying with Clark and Lois for that time.

We'd only managed to get inside the mansion when Lex had received a phone call from his sister, asking him to get to JeXCorp as soon as possible.

"The best!" Lex answered my question, coming over to me and placing his hands on my shoulders, drawing soothing circles around them with his thumbs.

"Clark's blood is finally synthesized?" I made sure. "We can produce the cure for larger scale?"

"Yes, we can help everyone in this world, honey, _everyone!_ Any disease… any wound… as long as one is still alive… we can heal," he said proudly.

"Ah! That's wonderful!" I squealed and jumped to him, putting my arms around his neck and hugging him. "I'm so happy!"

Ever since Lex had come back to me, I'd wanted to do good and I wasn't the only one. Lex had felt like he needed to repent for his past sins. That was when we had asked Clark for help. We had figured that if his blood could heal, we could take a sample and try to produce something out of it. It was obvious that Clark wouldn't be able to keep giving away his blood to heal the whole globe, but JeXCorp had been working on the solution for years now.

And finally - we found it.

"Have you tested it yet?" I asked another question.

"Tess is enrolling volunteers right now," Lex answered. "It will work, don't worry. They did every possible test and they all went just perfect."

"Any side effects?"

"Not that we know of. The cure seems to be the perfect solution… for everything. A pure source of health."

"If you're right, we have to redistribute it everywhere!" I felt so enthusiastic. "Lex, we can help every single person in this world!"

"I know, honey, I know."

* * *

We stumbled into the mansion, kissing all the time, locked in a passionate embrace.

"Finally, I can take these off…" Lex murmured against my lips and tongue and then pulled on my clothes until some of the fabric came out at the seams.

"You should… stop destroying my clothes…" I moaned as he begun tracing a path with his lips down to my breasts. "Seriously…"

"Next time…" came his usual answer and I laughed.

I wasn't going to be the one being left behind. Lex's shirt soon fell on my dress on the floor, both were torn.

"Now you did that," Lex chuckled, ripping my panties at the seam as well.

"I just… make you pay for what… you did first!" I screamed, because his fingers disappeared inside me that second.

"Bedroom…" Lex murmured, but ended up taking me against the wall in the hall. When was the last time we'd actually managed to get to bed first? I wondered, but couldn't think, because he was pushing into me already, fucking me mercilessly until I screamed his name in ecstasy. Then he allowed himself to come too.

"When will it stop?" I breathed out as we were panting heavily against each other, pinned to the wall, none of us willing to move. My hands were still clenching his buttocks and his pants were around his ankles.

"Hopefully, never," the answer came.

"It's not what usually happens in relationships…" I noticed.

"We were never ordinary."

"And you always have an answer for me."

He just kissed my lips again, licked and then sucked on my bottom lip.

The truth was that it was different between us, but not in the wrong way. We were long past the initial thrill and anticipation of sex, but still, we enjoyed it just the same. The longer we were married the more sex meant for us, even if we were just fucking. It was the sharing of souls, of hearts. It was deeper than before, it was restoring the connection between us. We were one being, apart when not joined physically. It felt like we actually shared one soul and one heart. Every time we were in the act, it felt right. Reaching the peak together was like walking on clouds, like watching the face of god.

The longer I was married to the love of my life the more I understood why some old religions used sex as a ritual to feel closer to god, to feel the divine. I felt it every time Lex was in me, but every time we parted I felt empty, like I was missing something.

Maybe that was what true love looked like?

* * *

"We have a problem," Lex said when he looked at the computer screen that was monitoring the vitals of the people that had taken the cure.

"Is it bad?" I asked, feeling my heart beating faster. This time it wasn't because of my sexy husband. It was because of fear. What if we just hurt more people?

"I'm not sure…" Lex hesitated, watching the diagrams attentively.

"What is it, then?" I prompted impatiently.

"They… they're not only healed…" Tess gasped, standing right next to her brother. "They're…

"…getting… younger," Emil finished after his freshly wedded wife. "I can't… I can't believe it!"

"They're getting _younger_?" I frowned. "I don't understand. What do you mean by that?"

"Clark's blood not only heals, it… causes the cells to reproduce… to grow infinitely… it…" Tess stopped.

"Holy shit," escaped Lex's mouth.

"Do you honestly want to tell me that those people will… live forever?!" I raised my voice in shock. "But… it's just impossible!"

"There's a change in the very structure of the cure," Emil notified, watching another screen. "The blood… adapts. Under… of course!" he suddenly exclaimed, clearly having a light bulb moment.

"What?! Tell me!" Lex demanded.

"It does work. It works even better than we anticipated it would. It does to people what it does to Clark under the yellow sun. It doesn't produce superpowers as they weren't born on Krypton, but… their bodies' cells keep regenerating, fixing everything... We are growing old every second," Emil begun explaining, "the process of cells ageing starts around our twenty second birthday, then they grow more and more old until the body dies, releasing the soul into the ether. Judging from your both death and near death experiences," Emil looked at me and Lex, "the soul goes higher, it moves on to another dimension. But it never dies."

"So you want to tell me that we've just found a way to preserve life indefinitely?" Lex asked, making sure.

"Yes," the answer came.

"I… it's just… that's… oh, God, it's wonderful!" I raised my voice. "We need to tell Clark!"

"Clark? I guess this can wai…" Lex started.

"No!" I interrupted him. "You don't understand! Don't you seem him more and more worried and depressed with every single passing day? Isn't it obvious? He doesn't get old. He's still as young as we remember him from years ago! And Lois? Lois is human! She will die and Clark will remain just the same! Now… now he can keep her and she can keep him!"

"And we can live together, here, forever," Lex told me like Clark wasn't important to him at all at the moment.

"Sure." I laughed. When it came to me, Lex tended to forget about the whole world. He would let every single person on the planet die if it meant having me by his side forever. I knew it wasn't right to think that way, but the truth was… love clouded one's judgment. I was so in love that I would probably do the same if that was a decision to make. I'd already lost him once. Or maybe it was more… did those other times count as deaths too?

"I'm going to check on our volunteers," Tess said.

"Ask them if they have any scars," Emil spoke.

"Why?" Tess turned back to him when she was just by the door.

"If the cells in their bodies are regenerating, it means they should fix any imperfections. Look for acne too."

"Ok…" Tess said slowly like it was too many miracles to comprehend at once.

"Wait…" Lex stopped her and then asked Emil, "give me the cure."

"What?"

"Give it to me! It won't hurt me and if it works as we said it does, I would've taken it eventually anyway."

"Why… oh," Emil understood.

Me too. I glanced at the black glove Lex was still wearing. He didn't want people to see his injured hand, even more, he didn't want them to see his body that was full of scars after his resurrection.

"Sit down and bare your arm," Emil commanded and Lex did as he was asked for.

"Wait… what if…" I started, looking at them with fear in my eyes.

"Jessica, it's ok. Nothing bad will happen to me," Lex tried to calm me down. "Trust me."

"But…"

"We can always call Clark," Tess told me. "I know it won't be necessary, but if something goes wrong, Clark's blood injected directly into a vein will save Lex."

"Alright," I agreed, but still a little reluctantly.

I saw Lex taking the glove off. I saw his hand with crinkled and burnt skin, then I saw his arm and the circular scar around his elbow that was from the assemblage of body parts that had together created the vessel he was in now. A body that looked exactly like the one I'd remembered, but in the same time was new. And, of course, bore scars.

The cure was injected into Lex's system.

"How long?" he asked Tess.

"About few minutes... You should stand by the window in the direct sunlight to speed up the process."

Lex did as he was asked and I followed him, standing behind him with my arms around his waist. I needed to cuddle up to his back, needed to feel him close to me, to feel him breathing.

"It's just… amazing," I heard him whisper in awe and I looked to his front.

His hand was like new now. There was no red crinkly skin anymore. Not a single flaw actually. Just Lex's hand. Just like I'd remembered from the times before the explosion.

"Lex…" I said his name quietly, let go off him in order to be able to stand right in front of him.

I unbuttoned his white shirt, desperate to saw his chest. I didn't care about the people present in the room. I just needed to see…

Beautiful, hairless, toned and scarless chest.

"It's… it's…" I couldn't find the right words for the miracle happening in front of my eyes. "Just like when we fell in love with each other…" I looked into Lex's eyes and saw that they seemed to be younger. His wrinkles also disappeared.

"Oh, my god…" I raised my hand to his face. "You look like… like in the day of our first wedding…"

"It's working," he said and took me into his arms, then kissed me passionately.

"Ekhm…" Emil cleared his throat. "Don't want to ruin the mood here, but there are people out there, waiting for us to tell them they're healthy. Do I have to remind you that they're mostly hopeless cases?"

"Sure… sure…" I said, still feeling a little fuzzy from the kiss. "Right… but wait… do I have more wrinkles on my face than you now?!" I asked Lex and heard him and Tess laughing hard.

"Not for long, my love, not for long," Lex chuckled again and put his shirt back on.

Then we came up with the Latin name:_ Vitam Aeternam_ - VA - Eternal Life.

* * *

**Year 2135**

"We're here," Clark said and we flew right into the Watchtower.

"What happened?" Chloe got to us as soon as she heard us coming in. "Why are you here at such a late hour?"

"Why are _you _here?" I asked. "Don't you have new vigilantes to take turns at nights?"

"Not since Lois wanted to come here," Chloe answered and now I noticed the dark circles around her eyes and the worry on her face. She lost weight too.

"Is it that bad?" I felt terrible for Lois, but I already knew about her condition and what I didn't know was where was my family, so I told Chloe what had happened or what I couldn't remember happening.

"Lily's gone?!" we suddenly heard a voice coming from the sofa that was situated in the far end of the room.

I made a few steps forward and saw Connor Queen - Chloe and Oliver's son - raising from his seat and getting to us quickly.

"What happened? Will she be ok?!" Panic was obvious on his face.

"Wait… you and my daughter?!" I asked in shock. "What?... How…? When…?" I couldn't form a proper sentence, I was so taken aback.

"Three excellent questions," I heard Oliver's voice and saw him coming out of the room on the back. "Connor?" he prompted in a hard voice.

Chloe seemed to be equally surprised, but she was the one to keep her blood cold, "Sorry, guys, whatever there is, it will have to wait. First, we need to see what exactly happened… Then we'll talk, young man!" She pointed a finger at her son.

"Mum, I am _not _young. Did you forget that just because I'm your son it doesn't…"

"…matter than you're almost a century old?" Oliver finished after him, laughing. "Thought so."

As Chloe got to her computers to access the Queen and Luthor satellites, I moved closer to the other sofa in the room. Lois was lying there and I needed to see how bad the situation was.

_Vitam Aeternam_ had given most of the people what they'd always wanted: hope, life and more time, but it seemed like poor Clark was cursed somehow as fate wanted to take away from him every woman he'd ever loved.

Lana had died. I had chosen Lex. Lois… was just lying here with no strength left in her. I could see her getting thinner and it looked terrifying.

Especially with her belly protruding, hiding a child inside.

Lois was thin everywhere except that one part of her body.

And there was nothing even the VA could do to make her ok.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

**Year 2024**

"How was it?" I asked when Lex came back to the mansion in the evening.

I loved the cure we came up with. It gave us more time, even the infinite matter of time. I would never lose my children and they would never lose their parents. I would watch them growing up, starting families on their own, never growing old. And I would have Lex forever. We'd always worried we wouldn't have enough time. Now we didn't have to. What was more, the cure healed our bodies. My belly after two pregnancies now looked like I never had children. It was perfectly flat and the stretching marks were gone. I loved it. My breasts looked so much better as well. And how much did Lex enjoy it all.

I loved my children, I did. What kind of a mother wouldn't? Only if I'd realized before I'd had them what kind of a responsibility and full time job it would be, I would've probably never wanted them. Now that was a mother, I didn't regret anything, of course. When they had been little, I hadn't had enough time to even brush my teeth. I'd wanted to work, to be with Lex, to love him, but I'd just been too tired. I still had no idea how we'd gotten through that period and I'd started to understand why men sometimes fell for other women. Women who had time for them. Women who weren't tired at all. Fortunately, Lex wasn't like that, he loved me with his whole heart and couldn't imagine a life without me. We'd been through enough to appreciate what we had. Still, I'd been as grateful for _vitam aeternam_ as I'd been when Lex had come back to me. We were beautiful again. We weren't so tired. We still didn't seem to have enough time for each other, but we knew it would change soon. Our children would grow up, leave the house and we would still be young. Was I living an actual fairy tale? I wondered in awe.

Apparently, no, I wasn't, because when you gave people something, they would always find a way to abuse it.

From the very moment the _vitam aeternam_ was created, Lex knew he would give it away for free to everyone that wanted it, but we couldn't imagine anyone that would refuse to be young and healthy forever. The main problem was the government. They wanted to sell it for the highest price and for a moment there, they did. People were not happy. Lex was devastated. He wanted to help them, he didn't want to be a typical Luthor that only watched for his own money and didn't care about the world. Not anymore.

I was the one that came up with a solution. I asked Clark to help distribute the cure and he did it. He wanted Lois to stay by his side as he couldn't imagine a day he would have to live without her. He would probably live forever, as long as the yellow sun was shining, and he would grief forever. I couldn't even imagine that kind of agony.

"How was it?" I asked when Lex walked into the room.

"Just like I thought it would be. They were furious," Lex sighed heavily and fell on the couch, right by my side.

I moved toward him and rested my head on his chest. His arms flung around me, cradling me in his embrace.

"That bad, hah? I'm sorry. I know it was my idea…" I started.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," he said quickly and kissed the top of my head with affection. "I would've done it eventually anyway. They have no right to sell the cure to the highest bidder and leave others to die sick in hospitals or on the streets. Something had to be done," his voice was very determined.

"I'm proud of you," I told him and raised my head, looking for his lips.

He kissed me softly, but with as much love as he could pour into it.

"I'm glad you are," he answered. "I am so tired…"

"Me too. The kids are draining too much energy from me," I complained.

"Few more years and we won't be leaving our bedroom at all," Lex chuckled and I could hear the ripples of his laughter through his chest.

I groaned, because few more years seemed terribly long to me. We were still having sex, whenever we could and feel up to it, but it seemed not enough after what we'd been doing before the children had appeared in our lives.

"We have the whole eternity," Lex comforted me like he knew what I was thinking and then he stroke my arms.

"Yeah… I can't wait," I yawned.

"Bed?" he suggested.

"Yeah, but sadly… to sleep."

Lex chuckled again and we slowly raised from the couch and trotted to our bedroom upstairs.

I fell asleep in his arms, enjoying the feel of his body next to mine, the closeness and heat. It was always just as important to me as sex was.

* * *

"What's happening?!" I asked, terrified when Clark flew through the window when I and Lex were in our office in JeXCorp, watching the news.

"It's not pretty," Clark sighed. "But we should've predicted it."

Old people started being active again. Hospitals weren't needed anymore. Old drugs were poison to the people now as they had one perfect cure. The economy was crumbling.

"We couldn't not give them what they deserved!" Lex said in a raised voice. "I wouldn't be able to live forever with the knowledge that so many people around me suffer and die!"

"I know, me neither. This is the greatest gift I could have ever given them. Besides the protection that I'm still providing," Clark agreed.

"We need to do something. We need to help them," I said, watching the news with my eyes widely opened.

"But how?" Lex asked. "The government's right. I might be a president, but they're all right. What will happen in ten years? There will be more and more people and no place for them to live. We can't keep destroying the environment to build skyscrapers!"

"I know what _I _can do," Clark suddenly spoke, very serious. "There is something Rokk told me a long time ago when he came back in time to warn me about Doomsday killing me."

"What is it?" I got curious.

"He said that I will create the bridge between words. That thanks to me, all the galaxies will know each other and they will live in peace."

"Do you honestly want to tell me that you want to start the universe exploration and eventually relocate some people to different planets?" Lex made sure.

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying," Clark admitted. "I don't know if it'll work out, but…"

"It's brilliant!" I gasped. "The space exploration would be our future even without the cure. The more time passes, the longer we live, he more children we have… the planet would not be big enough to fit us all eventually anyway."

"Ok, so… the plan would be to call a senate meeting and to present them with this idea. You need to come with me, Clark. We also need to call a press conference… We need to calm the nation and the whole world down," Lex started giving commands like the great leader I was so proud of. "It'll be a lot of work, but it will be worth it."

"Lots of work… yeah…" I murmured, not really happy about that part.

* * *

We stumbled into the bedroom, then to the bed and we fell on it.

Even then Lex's mouth didn't leave mine as he was devouring them hungrily, sucking, licking, his tongue caressing mine. I groaned loudly when his hand found my breast and fondled it, then stripped me off my bra and was soon replaced by his lips.

"Yes, yes…" I was wriggling under him, grazing against his pelvis, against the obvious hardness in his pants. "LEX! I missed this so much! YES!" I gasped.

He slid his hand into my panties and stroked me. Few more times and I came just from that.

"God," he rasped, pushing his still clothed erection into my thigh. "How long it's been?!"

"I don't know… but I'll die if I don't have you now!"

I undid his pants and freed his massive and pretty desperate erection.

There had been a few hand jobs we'd given to each other and blow jobs I'd given him, but it'd been quick, just to prevent us from thinking about sex all the time. There had been bigger issues to settle back then. The last few months were harder for us than those nights after the births of our children. The world needed us. We needed to fix what we'd broken.

And now it finally calmed down, people more or less adjusted to the new situation, although I was pretty sure they were still digesting the information about the passage to the other worlds. That one would take whole decades to complete, but it was Clark's job from now on. Lex and I could only help at the beginning, but we didn't have the knowledge of the universe like Clark did. After all, he'd been trained by Jor-El's machine in the Arctic.

Lex ripped my panties at the seams and I had to admit that I really missed that. I'd never been out of underwear during those last few months and before that I'd been forced to keep buying new sets.

I spread my legs and Lex slid himself home, hard and fast. We both groaned heavily at the sensation. I was tight.

"God, when _was _the last time?" It was me who asked the question this time.

"Don't remember," Lex panted and started fucking me.

"Oh, yes! Harder! Faster!"

"Yes, yes… JESSICA!"

We both came too fast. But we couldn't hold on for much longer.

As we climaxed, we didn't change out positions. Lex was still inside of me and in my arms as he just fell into my body.

"I love you so much… I missed you so much…" he murmured into my ear, his got breath grazing it.

"Yeah… those were exhausting months," I admitted, stroking the bald head I loved so much. "Nights and days of negotiations, travelling around the world… even with Clark it seemed like eternity."

"Yeah, and the kids were with us… I was so tired of them getting into our bed," Lex sighed. "They're too grown up, so let's not do that again!" He groaned and I felt him hardening a little inside of me. "Here we go again…"

"We've had enough of frustration," I agreed with him. "Now they're spending time with Clark's mother, so… god, all I want to do is fuck!"

"Yes… me too…"

And we went again… and again… and again… and we slept and ate and took a bath and went all over again…

* * *

**Year 2135**

"What _exactly happened_?" I heard coming from Connor.

"Lois, how are you?" I asked her, ignoring the blond man that looked just like his father.

"Been better," Lois answered and reached for the glass of water that was on the table.

"Let me," I offered and handed it to her. "How much time before the child comes out?" I asked.

"Few weeks… maybe less… maybe more…" Lois winced as she swallowed.

I wanted to help her so badly. I still remembered Clark crying in my arms when he found out what was actually killing his wife. No one could suspect that the cure…

"I _need _to know if she's ok!" I heard Connor's angry voice again.

"Ok, that's it, buddy!" I raised my voice and stood up. "Sorry," I whispered to Lois, because I didn't think that any kind of screaming was good for her or the baby right now. "You do realize that when Lex finds out, he'll kill you, don't you?" I turned to the young Queen.

I was right. Lex might've forgiven Oliver and they might've tolerated each other through the years, but it was only because of their common friend, Clark. He was the catalyst. Lex was his best friend, but Oliver as well. They had no choice but to actually live in peace as our lives were connected.

Oliver's son was in love with mine and Lex's daughter. It was a completely different thing. And it would become even more difficult if Lily…

"We wanted to tell you, I promise," Connor said, trying to defend himself. "We were just about to do that, but… well, you came here, saying that Lily's missing… I'm sorry that I dropped another bomb on you," he finally apologized.

"So Lily loves you too?" I made sure. That was a pickle, indeed.

"Yes. She told me. She even told me that…" Connor blushed a little, but continued anyway, "that she wants what you, I mean you and Mr. Luthor, as her parents, have. She wants the kind of devotion and love you two share. The never ending flame."

"She said that?" I raised my eyebrows in suspicion.

"Those are her exact words," Connor assured me.

"Well, that's…" I didn't know what to say, but if Connor kept it up, he might just win Lex over. "Save that speech for my husband. That's the only way you can stand a chance," I finally told him.

"Thank you, Mrs. Luthor."

"Call me Jessica. I will never be old enough to be called Mrs. Luthor. " I winked at him.

What could I have against this relationship anyway? Connor was a decent guy, if not counting a few episodes from the early years of his life, but Oliver had had them too. Now Oliver had been faithful to Chloe since the day they 'd gotten together and they loved each other.

"Fine, we'll talk when we find them. Chloe, have you got something?" I turned to my friend.

"Working on it. Just give me a few more minutes…"

"Need any help?" Oliver asked her.

"I've got this."

Maybe Lily and Connor wouldn't be as bad together, I thought. I'd been with Oliver in the past and we'd looked good as a couple. And had been happy, for some time at least.

I decided to come back to Lois.

Thinking of Lily and Connor together made me think of the period I'd spent without Lex, about me with Oliver and Clark, about being a misfit, being miserable, about Zod…

Wait…

I just came up with an idea…

"Lois! I know what can help you!" I suddenly yelled.

Clark was with his wife by now, looking at her with a face so broken that I truly wanted to cry for tham.

Only if I was right, Lois would stay with us for a long time.

* * *

**Few months earlier**

The kids were long gone, travelling around the world.

I was a little worried, because so much time had passed and they were still single. Of course, there were romances, but nothing serious.

"I hate to break it to you, but they are my children too," Lex told me when getting into bed and putting his arms around me. "And you know very well how promiscuous a life I'd led before I met you."

I snorted, "Met me? Try before you told me you loved me!"

"You're still mad about that, aren't you?" he sighed. "Honey, I'm a man and it was a completely normal…"

"Now you're being sexist! Women can sleep around too and you know it!"

"I'm very aware of that fact, but… you know you are the one woman I have chosen to spend eternity with," he said with honesty. He knew exactly what to say to get to me and it was the truth, so it made all the difference.

"It's only convenient that it isn't a metaphor," I noticed.

Lex chuckled and kissed my neck.

"I came back from the dead for you," he said against my skin as he sucked on my pulse.

"Lex, I never questioned the love you have for me," I told him and shifted in bed, so he would stop distracting me for a moment. Our faces were at the same level now and I could look into the eyes of his I loved so much.

"Good, because if you start on my life, I will have to remind you of Clark and Oliver," he noticed bitterly.

"Now you're just being mean. I can only imagine what you would do if I was dead and…" I started.

"I never blamed you," he interrupted me.

"I know, but what I wanted to say is that I'm just worried about our children."

"They are grownups. For a long time now."

"And they still live with us."

"The mansion is big enough. Even if we scream, they can't hear us."

"Oh, my God, why does everything has to be about sex with you?!"

"Isn't with you too?" Lex asked and brushed his lips against mine.

"Lex, I'm serious!" I pushed him away.

"Me too." He leaned down to my neck again and traced a path with his lips.

"Lex… I'm worried that neither Alex nor Lily have found someone yet. Someone with whom they would have what we do," I managed to say it even though it was difficult with Lex's lips being so close to my breasts.

Lex shrugged. "I think it's just nature adjusting to a new way of life. We live longer, indefinitely even, so the time to find a soul mate and true love increased as well."

"Maybe you're right, but I'm still worried."

"You would so like to have some wedding to throw," Lex chuckled against my collarbone.

"No, I just want them to be happy."

"Who says they aren't?"

"I know Alex isn't. He's sad all the time. I can feel that he would like to meet some girl, but it's just not happening for him."

"It will. Eventually, trust me," Lex's voice grew serious and his eyes were once again on the level of mine. "You know, I thought I would never find true love. Women were always using me."

"And you were… how old? Twenty eight when you married me? That is not a long time."

"For you especially, you were just twenty."

"And those are just numbers."

"I never said you were immature. You always seemed to be above your age."

"Oh, thank you…" I scoffed.

"Can we have sex now?" he asked, exasperated that I seemed not to notice how hard he tried.

"I guess so…" I pretended to reluctantly agree and he smiled at me.

Only in this very moment, Lex's phone rang.

He groaned, this time against my breasts and then heaved himself from the bed.

"It's Clark," he said, "I hope nothing bad happened… Clark? … Yes… of course… we'll be there as soon as we can." He hung up and looked at me, worried.

"What is it?" I asked, imaging the worst scenarios possible.

"It's Lois. Something's wrong. We need to get to Watchtower now."

"Did she have an accident?" I asked, getting out of bed fast.

"She would be in hospital if she did."

"Didn't Clark tell you why he needs us there?"

"No, but he sounded truly terrified. And believe me, Clark doesn't get scared so easily."

* * *

We were in Watchtower twenty minutes later, thanks to our air-ship.

"What happened?" I asked, barging inside. "What is it? What's wrong with Lois?!"

Lois and I were close, it'd happened over time. I'd also got closer with Chloe. It was nice to have some girlfriends after all. They understood me better than men.

"We're still trying to find out," Chloe informed us from her position by the computers. "It looks like she's been sick for a long time now… I'm checking the symptoms as we speak."

"Maybe it's food poisoning?" Clark suggested, standing at the other end of the room where Emil were just examining Lois.

I went over there with Lex.

Tess was there too, sitting in a chair, dressed in a beautiful purple evening dress.

"We were on a charity banquet," she explained, "and then Chloe called us."

"Nothing! There's nothing matching those symptoms!" Chloe came over to us. "Maybe it's some new kind of a disease?"

"No, it's not new, it's as old as times," Emil suddenly spoke. "Lois, you're pregnant."

"What?!" both Lois and Chloe exclaimed. "But it's impossible!" That was Lois alone.

"Why? It's completely…"

"Are you suggesting I cheated on Clark?!" Lois raised her voice, clearly being furious. "I love him and I would never do that!"

"Of course, you wouldn't," Emil agreed quickly, realizing that he'd just insulted her. "But there is no other explanation for your condition. You're having morning sickness, you gained weight… it's completely normal during pregnancy, so what did I say?!" he added again when he saw the new look on her face. "Ok, then Clark mentioned the mood swings…"

"Oh, come on!" Lois was slowly working herself up into fury. And furious Lois was not something to be reckoned with.

"It all points out that you're pregnant," Emil repeated.

"But we cannot conceive!" Lois yelled at him. "So it's just not possible!"

"Chloe, please, go to a shop and get us a pregnancy test," Clark asked her.

"No problem."

"But Clark…" Lois started again.

"Let's just take a deep breath, Lois, and think about it," I suggested, sitting next to her on the couch. "Maybe it's not that impossible after all."

"Jess, you know that Clark's physics and mine just… he looks human and trust me, his body works human, but…"

I blushed a little, because actually I did know. Also Lois should remember me and Clark being together in the past, but I didn't correct her. What for? She was angry enough. I didn't need to give her more fuel.

"We really wanted to have a child," she continued, "seeing you and Lex having them and then Chloe and Oliver… We really did want it too, but it just wasn't meant to be. Emil, you said it yourself."

"I know I did, but something must've happened."

"Nothing's changed," Clark told him. "I'm still me, I have superpowers. I am the Superman."

"Cocky much?" Lex nudged him while standing next to him.

"You'll never get over it, won't you?" Clark rolled his eyes at his friend.

"Well, no, because it's not fair. Jessica tells me I'm superman every time we…"

"Oh, ok, let's just stop you right here!" I cut in. "I know you two want to lighten up the mood, but please…"

"Got it!" Chloe came back.

* * *

Emil was right. Lois was pregnant.

The only question left was _how_.

When the day came, she was taken to Emil's lab and stayed inside for almost three hours.

"I'm starting to worry," Clark said, by now pacing around the hall.

"It will be ok. What bad can happen?" Chloe asked. "You wanted a child for a very long time."

"And then we gave up, because it was clear we would never have one."

"Have you ever talked about adoption?" I suddenly asked. "I'm only curious, because you were adopted, Clark."

"Of course, we have," he answered, "but we never actually got around to do it. There was always something else to do first. I always have my hands full of job. And now… the Bridge…" his voice trailed off.

"Just because you don't believe that vigilantes without superpowers can handle it all without you," Oliver remarked. He'd come over when he heard about the situation from Chloe.

"It's not that I don't think you can handle it," Clark explained. "It's just that VA doesn't make you invincible. You can die if help doesn't come to you on time. Even today," he emphasized.

"I carry this with me," Ollie showed him a vial of VA.

"Well, if you're hurt really badly, you might not reach it."

I started to feel uncomfortable as horrific images invaded my mind.

"Hey, I'll be fine. Alex and Lily will be fine too," I heard Lex telling me. He could sense exactly what I was feeling. "We take care of each other and we're always careful. Besides, the criminals in jail don't get to take VA, so most of them already died out."

He was right. The crime rate dropped down significantly thanks to that. But there were still accidents, cataclysms, natural disasters and sometimes Clark was getting out of himself to help all the people all over the world. Lost now was more painful than ever. If a person died, it was almost sure that someone close to them would try to take their own life, because living forever without the loved ones was agony.

"Everything comes with a cost," Lex said and it was true. There was always a price.

Finally, the door opened showing Emil.

"You can go in now," he said.

Clark walked toward the door, then stopped to look at his friends.

"You can come too," he told us. "I need some support. Emil, you don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not. I have a big office, we'll all fit in there and quite frankly, I think they should hear this as well."

What was it? I got seriously worried now. Emil didn't look too happy either.

Lois was inside, sitting in a comfortable chair right next to Emil's desk. She looked pale and exhausted.

"Are you ok? How are you feeling?" Clark was immediately crouching right by her side.

She just sent him a faint smile.

"So, Lois is, indeed, pregnant and Clark is the father, of course," Emil began explaining. "The real question was how it happened. Well, I have the answer, it's _vitam aeternam_."

"What?" I frowned at him. "I don't understand. What does it have to do with it? It heals, but Lois and Clark were healthy."

"Yes, but you see… I have discovered that VA does not only heal. Technically it fights off everything that is abnormal for the body, it heals the cells so the body would stay young in order to prolong life. It does it to Clark and it is completely normal for Clark's physics, but not for ours."

"Don't tell me that we need to stop taking it!" Lex gasped. "It's a miracle, not a curse!"

"Of course, it is a miracle," Emil agreed slowly, "and no, I don't think it will cost people any harm, but… they need to be aware of what it does to them in… some special circumstances."

"So what does it do?" I asked.

"Years and years of taking it by Lois… made her body adaptable for Clark's seed. It recognized Clark as the love of her life, the only person she's been involved with for such a long time and… it adjusted her body to Clark's physics, therefore making it possible for them to conceive."

"This gives a whole new dimension to birth control," Oliver cut in.

"Not necessarily," Emil said, "we came to a point when a one hundred percent working birth control is on the market."

Yes, it was and I was on it. It was a safe liquid that had to be swollen once a year. It worked perfectly, adjusting to the hormonal environment and the DNA. I'd had to undergo a thorough examination before I'd been able to start taking it. Personalization of it was a reason to why it was working so well.

"I am sure we would be able to come up with a working birth control for Lois after she would give birth to this child. And I think we will need it. The Bridge is opened, soon people might start to mix with other species from out the space. My team is already working with some of them on comparing our medicine," Emil continued.

"You make everything seem so perfect," Lois suddenly spoke bitterly, "but you didn't tell them the worst."

"The worst?" Clark got worried. "What is it?"

"The child has your powers."

That answer was like a sentence.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

**Two months earlier**

Lex was working late that night and our children were out. I was just about to go to bed, tired with waiting for my husband and bored with the book I'd picked up from the shelf, when I heard some rustle and felt a waft of air like I'd left an open window somewhere.

I stilled. I could call for help in an instant if I was in any danger and the security would just burst in or, even faster, I could call Clark.

I was safe, so I went to the study to the check that noise.

"Clark?" I asked, frowning as I saw him standing next to the window. He was just closing it.

"Sorry, I… I just need to talk to you," he said in a voice so quiet that it could be a whisper. He was also dressed casually, not in a Superman suit.

"Clark, is everything ok?" I got worried and made my way to him. "What is it?" I studied his face, trying to read him.

"It's Lois, Jess, I… I can't help her." His voice grew desperate.

"Is it that bad?" I made sure.

I was so sorry for them. So sorry that they had to go through something so terrible. Lois was carrying Clark's child, a Kryptonian child, and she refused to do anything about it. It was obviously sucking the life out of her and wearing her down as it was so powerful and strong, but she refused to kill it.

Clark never actually brought such an idea, but Emil had presented them with all the available options. Lois couldn't take any more of VA while she was pregnant, because that could cause unforeseeable consequences. Killing the child by cutting it off her womb was out of the question too. A mother loved her offspring and she would give her life for it if that was necessary. I knew, I had two children myself. That kind of love was embedded deep inside us and nothing could take it away. Lily and Alex were as important to me as Lex always was, so I could only imagine being in Lois's position. Once I did that, I almost cried myself, because what would that do to Lex? Probably exactly what it was doing to Clark. I could see it on his face right now. He was close to breaking completely.

"Clark, Lois is strong. She will get through this," I tried to comfort him.

"What is she doesn't?" Clark asked, walking over to the couch and sitting on it. "Jess… I… I can't… I always knew that I was destined to eventually wind up completely alone, but I refused to think about it, because there was really no point. Everybody dies. At least they did. Everyone except me. And then you and Lex… you gave me something amazing. A chance to be with Lois indefinitely, but… here I am, watching her dying and I can't do anything about it! It's killing me!" He hid his face in his hands.

I walked over to the couch and sat right next to him.

"Clark, we'll get through this, together," I said, placing my hand on his and squeezing gently. Not that anything I could do would hurt him.

"I just… I just…" Clark's voice broke and his body shook.

"You're not alone, Clark, you never will be. We'll here. And Lois is still here too. Maybe it all will work out just fine," I kept on talking to him to soothe his pain.

His body shook even more and I heard him crying.

"Let it all out," I encouraged him, pulling him to my chest to embrace him.

Not even a superman could stand so much pain without any outlet.

"I didn't…" Clark started. "I didn't even ask her to do… something with the baby… to agree… to Emil's suggestions… I couldn't. Even if kryptonite was still around… I already love this child, but what it does to her…"

"Clark, it's only human to love it. It's not its fault. It's no one's fault. It just happened and we have to deal with it the best way possible."

"I wish I was stronger. Stronger to make a choice."

"There is no choice to make and even if there was, Lois would never forgive you for taking that child away from her. She even knows you wouldn't be able to do something like that. You're too good."

"And Lex? Would he?" Clark suddenly asked.

I just sighed. I didn't want to answer that question. I didn't even want to think about it. I just knew that without me there would be no Lex. We were like one, when living without the other we were slowly dying. Good thing we were both human and didn't have to worry about problems like Clark and Lois had.

Then a chill ran through my body. Because it _could've _been me. I'd been one step from being with Clark in the past. If only he hadn't lied to me about Lex. If only I'd forgiven him faster. If only Lex hadn't come back… Gladly, he did. No one could make me happier than Lex and I could never love anyone like I loved him.

Clark shifted his position, now his arms were around me instead of me just holding him. We hugged.

"Thank you, Jess. You were always my best friend. I wouldn't be able to let it all out in front of Lois, not right now."

"I know. And I am sure she would understand."

"I'm glad that Emil proved that it's not possible for the VA to alter all the people's bodies like it happened to her."

"Clark, you always blame yourself for things that aren't really your fault. You need to stop, you know that, right?" I asked him when we let go of each other.

"Yeah, I know, but… it still feels like it's my fault. If I hadn't come to earth in the first place…" there he went again.

"Then what? Maybe there wouldn't have been a meteor shower, but it doesn't mean that life would've been better. I know for sure that it wouldn't have! I would've never come to Smallville, met you, fallen in love with Lex… I can't imagine my life any other way."

"You know I could always take the Legion ring and…"

"What? Actually stop the meteor shower? I think you know better by now that there's nothing worse than messing with the past," I said bitterly.

"I know," he agreed. "I… I don't know what I'm thinking…"

"And I would kill anyone who would _ever _try to change things! There is no option that there is a life for me without Lex," I added in adamant voice.

"And for me without Lois," Clark added.

"You see? Clark, you gave people so much! Just think about it, you made their hopeless dream come true, you made them practically immortal."

"For what cost, Jess? I altered… I altered _everything_, _every single _sphere of life."

"It's only natural for us to evolve. Besides, if not you, someone out of space would've eventually come here on Earth, and they might've not been so nice or given us so much."

"And look at the word now, activists fighting for animals rights want them to have the VA," Clark said and we both laughed out loud. It was good. Laughing was a medicine.

"Well, they actually do, but people were always doing silly stuff even before you."

"Thank you, Jess. I feel much better now."

"Ready to face Lois again?"

"Ready," he sighed.

"You need to believe that it'll be ok."

"I'll try."

After having said that, Clark opened the window and flew out of it, disappearing into the night.

I stood there, hugging myself like I was cold. I was thinking that nowadays I wasn't spending any time with just Clark alone and I missed that. I missed our friendship. When we were together we were always around other friends, either Chloe or Tess. Lex was also always present like I and he were inseparable. Still, this was a good thing.

"Is he alright?" I suddenly heard Lex's voice from behind me and I almost jumped.

"Lex, you scared the hell out of me!" I snapped at him when turning around to face him.

He just chuckled and walked over to the window to close it, then he came back to me and put his arms around me, warming me up.

"Sorry. I told you I would be back late."

"Were you there the whole time?" I asked.

"You mean during your conversation with Clark? About half of it. You were pretty wonderful with him, you know," he told me when pulling away and looking into my eyes while his hand put a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"Well, I'm a good friend."

"So I heard and… what I loved most about your speech was how you spoke of me." Lex smiled to me and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

"Oh, that was just something I said. Don't feel too important, you know," I said, joking, of course.

"Mhmm…" Lex hummed while kissing me harder. "You know, we have the whole mansion to ourselves," he mentioned with his lips still against mine.

"So we really need to use that opportunity."

"Oh, yes, we do."

* * *

**Now**

_Even if kryptonite was still around…_

"Lois! I know what can help you!" I yelled and I could've sworn that everyone jumped on my sudden outburst.

"What? What is it?"

"I can't believe how obvious it is! But also…" I got pale.

"Jess, please, tell me!" Clark almost begged.

I took a deep breath, "Blue kryptonite. It takes away your powers, so it will make the child human. At least temporarily."

"I can't believe I haven't thought about it!" Clark admitted. "Wait, I know why I haven't. There is _no _kryptonite around anymore. Not just the green kind, the blue and red has been taken care of too. We couldn't let any visitor out of space weaken me or get infected."

"What's the problem? You have the ring, don't you?" Oliver spoke. "Then use it and bring us some kryptonite."

"But… I can't just…"

"Clark, you know well that I stand firmly against all time travelling endeavors, but I don't think this one will hurt," I said. "You can just go, pick up some kryptonite and come back with it. Only you need to _swear _to me that you will not be tempted by doing anything irrational."

Clark was already on his feet.

"Do you really think I could?" he asked me. "Jess, I know the consequences of going back in time better than anyone else."

"So do I," I told him.

"We've come too far to change anything. The world is actually a pretty good place right now," Chloe appeared. "The crime rate is almost nonexistent and people don't die, therefore, there's less suffering."

"People still can die and this is the problem, but we can never have it all," I corrected her, sadly. "You found something?"

"Yes, Jess, I'm afraid Lex and your kids were kidnapped by aliens who called themselves the Locians. They are form the tenth galactic, the Locia planet. It's a rather vicious species and they're fighting each other all the time. They never ever had a brief period of peace in their whole history and they exist for one thousand years now. Actually, Lex voted against them being allowed on Earth, but in overall they got the permission. It's better not to angry them."

"So that is why they took him?" I asked, frowning, "because he voted against them, but they were still let in?"

"Actually, Locians made a few public threats to Clark himself, I mean, Superman," Chloe notified. "So I would say the wise thing to do for them would be to take him or Lois, not Lex."

"Only Lois is here all the time now and Watchtower is a fortress prepared for anything. They wouldn't be able to get in," Clark said in a hard but protective voice.

Of course, he didn't want anything happen to Lois, but something had already happened to the love of _my _life.

"First things first!" Clark added. "I need to go get that kryptonite now and we'll deal with Locians when I get back."

"Clark…" I started again.

"I promise," he just said. "You need the past to stay the same as much as I do, believe me."

He was gone.

* * *

_I woke up in pain. _

_ I realized that I was lying on something cold and uncomfortable. I blinked a few times, but it was still dark. Then I heaved myself up and discovered that I was on a cold cement ground._

_ "Jessica?!" I yelled in fear for my wife's safety. Where was she? Why couldn't I feel her warn body next to mine like I always did? Why didn't I wake up in our bed in the mansion? _

_ I straightened myself up, massaging my joints. I must have a few bruises by now, but I didn't care. The most important thing at the moment was my family._

_ When my eyes more or less adjusted to the darkness, I spotted cell bars. Was I in prison? I wondered. I got closer and tried to push them aside, but they wouldn't budge. _

_ "Jessica! Alex! Lily!" I yelled both in desperation and fear._

_ Who could take me? Who could hold a grudge against me _now_?_

_ "Dad?!" Suddenly, I heard both my children._

_ "Are you ok?! What happened? Where are you?!" I screamed into the darkness._

_ I wasn't sure if it was even safe to yell, but I needed to know that they were ok. I wasn't concerned about myself at the moment._

_ "We're fine, but we don't know what happened!" came the answer from Alex._

_ "Is mom with you?!"_

_ "No, we're alone! They put us into some cell! It looks like a prison!" Lily shouted back._

_ "Yes, it does," I said quietly to myself. "Do you remember anything?!"_

_ "No, we just went to bed last night and woke up here!"_

_ Why Jessica wasn't with us? Was it a good or bad news? I thought hard and decided it was the latter. _

_ Rage overtook me when I thought what whoever that had taken us could do to my wife._

_ We'd been through hell, even literally, so could we overcome even more?_

* * *

"Got it!" Clark came back half an hour later with a lead box in his hands.

"How did it go?" I asked, already scared of what his answer might be. But it was Clark, right? There was no one more careful when it came to time traveling than him. He knew what kind of consequences there could be if he did change something.

"Alright. I just went back in time to Smallville during the night, picked up a meteor rock from a field and came back. No one saw me. Nothing changed," he assured me.

"Assuming no one was to find that particular rock," Oliver said. "Sorry," he apologized quickly when he saw the looks on our faces. "It was a joke, guys!"

"No one's in the mood for jokes," I said harshly.

"It's ok, Ollie, there were many more when this one came from," Clark reassured him with a smile and then picked the rock out of the box. "I needed to put it into my old green kryptonite box, because I wanted to come back as soon as possible and I don't have any powers around the blue one," he explained as he came over to Lois, holding the rock carefully. "Lois, if anything's wrong, you tell us right away. Do you understand?"

"Of course, Clark, but I know I'll be fine. Maybe this is exactly what I needed," she said, smiling to him weakly.

The kryptonite was soon put on top of her belly.

We all just stood there, waiting, but would some change really happen so fast?

"Clark," I finally said, "when you already have the meteor rock… please, I'm begging you, help me. Help Lex and our kids. I…" I was suddenly hit with all the possible outcomes of what was happening and it leveled me down completely. Now I knew how Clark had felt for the last eight months when Lois had been pregnant. "If something happens to either one of them… I… I just won't survive it… I love them too much and the perspective of a whole eternity spent without…" I knew how much it hurt to be completely alone. I'd been through that already. I also knew how it was to live when my loved one was dead. Back when Lex had been gone, I'd been suffering beyond my imagination, but yet I'd known I would die eventually. "What would've happened if he'd… if my kids had… I would've stopped taking the fucking cure and died myself, but how could've I? I wouldn't have been able to leave anyone alone!"

"Hey, Jess, Jess," Oliver got to me and put his hands to my shoulders, "don't you dare thinking that way. They will be fine, do you understand me?! They _have to be_. After everything you've been through, you deserve to be happy. You deserve this family. Nothing will happen to them."

Oliver had never stopped protecting me, even after Lex had come back to life. He still, after all those years, felt guilty of killing him and tried to make up for it.

"Oliver's right. We'll do everything to bring them back safely," Clark agreed. "Chloe, where are Locians now? Where is their Earth headquarters?"

"Let me check it up…"

"Suddenly, I'm very hungry," Lois said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so…"

"It's ok, Lois. It's a good sign," I said, forcing a smile to my face.

"I'll bring her something," Connor offered and left the room, heading to the kitchen.

"Oh… Clark?" we heard Chloe's voice. "I think you should see this. It's for you. A message sent in an e-mail."

"What message?" Clark asked, quickly making his way to the monitors and we all, except Lois, followed.

Chloe hit play and we saw the face of a Locian. They looked almost human, but their skin was greenish and they had horns on top of their heads. Also the sharp, triangular teeth didn't make them look very friendly.

"Kal-El," the Locian said, "we couldn't get to you beloved one, Lois Lane, so we took your best friend and his children. I understand you are the godfather to Alexander Luthor Junior."

"Oh, God!" I covered my face with my hands. "Oh… my… god…"

"We will let them go if you do something for us. We want a very special ring and we know you have it. It's called the Legion Ring. Bring it to us and we will give you back your friend's family. Fail us, they will die. We are certain that you do comply though, because the emotions of Earth women are very powerful."

The message was over and there was silence in the room.

No one wanted to say what had to be said.

"Jess," Clark finally turned to me and his expression softened when he saw my eyes in tears.

"Clark, I… I can't lose them… not again… you know what will happen to me if Lex… if our kids…" I stopped, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to calm myself down.

"I know, Jess, I know and I won't let anything happen to them, I promise. I love them all too. They're my family. We are all one big family here."

"But you can't give them the ring! You just can't!" I raised my voice. "I'm not stupid! My family will die either way! Locians want to go back in time and there is only one reason why! They hate you, Clark, and they will try to kill you! And if you die, then… we all die or… God… if they succeed… me in the past will never meet Lex and we will never have kids…" I lost the ground under my feet and soon found myself being held by Clark.

"Come over here, you need to sit down," he said with care in his voice and took me to a chair. "Now, listen to me. I will not let anything of what you just said happen, understood?" He looked me deep in the eye when cupping my face. "I promise I will free them and I will not give Locians the ring."

"But… how?"

"Leave that to Superman," he just said.

If only Lex was here, he would have an answer to that, but he wasn't. And it hurt so much. He'd been gone just for a few hours, but it already felt like much longer.

"What did I miss?" Connor came back with a tray full of food.

"Now not, son," Oliver just shushed him.

"Maybe I should come back in time myself?" Clark finally suggested. "Maybe I could safe Lois. Maybe she…"

"What?" Suddenly, Lois was the one to speak. "Smallville, I am still in the room!" The fact that she called Clark Smallville was enough to know that she was angry with him. "And I will dig up a green kryptonite if you do anything to our child! I love it! You love it too! I know it hurts to see me like this, but I want this child to be born! Clark, we can be parents! And I really feel much better now! The blue rock took away our kid's powers, so I'll be perfectly fine… God, this food tastes so good!"

"Well, she look perfectly ok to me," I told Clark. "I was like this in the last month of my pregnancies too."

"Me too," Chloe agreed. "Hungry and angry all the time, but also… oh, there it is!"

Lois heaved herself up, feeling much stronger now and she slowly went to the bathroom.

"Don't you dare messing with time!" she threatened Clark once again, pointing a finger at him before she disappeared.

"Ok, then we'll break them out the old way. Oliver, are you in?" Clark turned to his friend.

"Sure, I am, bro!... We just need to assemble our team. Chloe, can you call everyone?"

"The _whole _Justice League? That's hundreds of people! I think you just need the most loyal ones." Chloe winked at him. "Like good old times… I'll let Bart, Vic and AC know. Oh, and maybe Dinah."

I knew Clark was a man of his word, but what if something did happen to Lois? What if something went wrong? He would take the ring and he would change it all, I just knew it, could feel it, because I would do the same if something happened to Lex.

I spotted the Legion ring on the table where Clark left it and I hid it in my pocket. Maybe I was selfish. Maybe he would never forgive me for this, but I would not live in a world when I didn't love Lex.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

"…_then we'll have to kill them," came to my ears when two aliens that had apparently taken us, walked near the place where I and my children were kept._

_ They could kill us and there must be a reason for that. What had I done? Why had they taken us? What did they want? Those questions were driving me crazy._

_ I was past the point of being scared. All I wanted right now was for Alex and Lily to come back home safely. I didn't care about myself. Not anymore. I knew if something happened to me, Jessica would never be happy again, especially when she would have so many years ahead of her, but she would have our kids. I needed to save them because that was what parents did and I knew she would've done the same. _

_I called to the enemy, asking what they wanted, why we were here, but I was met with silence. No one wanted to tell me anything. No one cared. By now my throat was sore from screaming and I could just sit there in physical pain on the cold ground and wait… for something that would come, but I still had no idea what it was._

_ I was dreaming of home, of the warm and beautiful body of my wife. I wanted to hold her in my arms even if only for one more minute. I wanted to bury myself in her at least one more time. Who would think that love could actually last that long? Maybe the real one, the one that was meant to be, could. Only no one had ever known that in the past as people had been dying way too soon. Right now, over hundred years of living in perfect health, I still wanted only her._

_ If I didn't die, I would spend the eternity making her happy and being a good father to our children._

_ Only I had already sworn that a long time ago and since then I hadn't really done anything wrong. If I'd had, Clark and Jessica would've made sure I wouldn't again._

_ I fell asleep at some point and then something woke me up. I didn't know how much time had passed and if Alex and Lily were still ok._

_ After a few seconds I realized what actually woke me. It was the noise. Like a battle. I knew what was coming. The Justice League came for me, thank god! I just hoped they weren't too late._

_ "Lex?!" suddenly, I heard Clark's voice._

_ "Over here!" I called to him with relief in my voice. We were safe. "Is Alex and Lily safe?!" _

_ "We're here!" I heard their screams._

* * *

I was waiting impatiently and I was scared out of my mind.

I believed in Clark, I really did as always, but I was afraid that something bad might've already happened to my family. Or that the Justice League would just be too late.

Still, I had the solution in my pocket. It was a small ring, but it seemed to burn my body through my clothes. I knew it was wrong to steal, but I was desperate. I was a wife, a lover, a mother. I couldn't let anyone, not Lex, not my children to get hurt. I wouldn't survive that.

"Jess, it'll be alright. They'll bring them back, I know it," Chloe tried to comfort me as she sat right by my side on the couch, handing me a cup of hot coffee.

"Thanks." I took the coffee and sipped it slowly. "Lois, how are you?" I asked her. She was lying on another couch, colors having returned to her face and she seemed to be glowing.

"Good, except that elephant I'm carrying inside," she joked. "I actually have hope now. I know I can do this and everything will be alright."

"You don't have to go through any more pain," Chloe told her, "just do what I and Jessica did, have a c section and right after that take some VA and your body will be like new. No scars, no stretching marks."

"It's fascinating how the technology goes forward, isn't it? But what is terrifying is that when we gain so much more, the lost is also so much greater. I know, I almost..." Lois's voice trailed off.

"I know too," I said, "I've been there. And I don't want to ever be there again, especially now when I don't die."

"We have to find a way to protect the people in this world," Chloe spoke again.

"How? You can lock the criminals up, prevent murders from happening, but no matter how careful people are, there will always be accidents or natural cataclysms. Even Superman can't deal with them all at once," I noticed.

"Now there'll be two of them," Lois suddenly realized. "If this baby has Clark's powers…"

"It'll be unstoppable," I agreed, "but it still won't be enough to protect the whole world, especially when the Bridge is up and running."

"Mum, they're back!" we suddenly heard Connor's voice.

He wasn't allowed to go on this mission. Even though he'd been an adult for so many years now, Oliver was still overprotective and when around, he always told Connor to lie low. Connor was in Justice League, having all the potential and skills after his father, but not many opportunities to do something about them.

"Are they ok?!" I asked, jumping to my feet and putting the half empty cup of coffee on the table near me.

The door to Watchtower opened and I saw Clark and Oliver with a guy that looked so…

"We rescued that one too," Clark notified. "This is Rokk, remember him?"

It was the guy who would be a part of the Legion in the future. Of course, I remembered him, but I didn't care about him at the moment.

When they were already inside, I could finally see my family. Lex and Alex and Lily. They looked exhausted and tired, but they were ok!

"Lex!" I yelled to him and my heart called for him as I ran toward him and put my arms tightly around his neck. He hugged me too, burying his face in my hair, breathing me in.

"I love you," he said into my ear.

"I love you too. I'm so glad you're ok!" I told him, pulled away a little and cupped his face to look him in the eye. I kissed him briefly, because I still needed to get to my children.

When Lex released me from his embrace, I could feel him tensing even though the physical contact was gone.

Lily disappeared and there was only Alex standing right next to us. I hugged him and made sure he was fine.

Then I saw why Lex was furious out of a sudden.

Lily ran toward Connor and now she was kissing him.

"Lillian Alexandra Luthor!" Lex growled at her.

I had to stifle my laugh, because he was so overprotective of his daughter that it was truly funny! Lily was more than an adult, she was just about twenty five to thirty years younger than we all were, but in this new word it was barely a difference at all. She'd been alive for long and Lex still treated her like his little girl. Now his outburst caused the pair to jump away from each other.

"Would you care to explain this?!" Lex asked, still angry with them.

"Lex, honey, it's alright. They're in love. You don't part two people that want to be together. You of all the people should know that," I tried to alleviate the situation.

"But she… Lily, you didn't tell us about this and now… wait, Jessica, how do _you _know?" Lex turned to me. "Have you known all this time that our daughter and a _Queen_…"

"Oh, for God's sake!" that was Oliver. "Lex, I thought we were past this! I've spent all those years since… that explosion…" he was careful now with his words in front of the children, "I've done _everything _I could to repent for that sin and to be your friend, to accept you and believe in you even when my guts… ok," he stopped on seeing the look on Lex's face. "What I'm trying to say here is that what does it matter that our children are in love? You'd prefer some stranger to enter the life of your family right now and take Lily from you? Or it's better to actually know the guy she fell for, all your life? You saw Connor grow up…"

"I've also seen him doing exactly what his father was doing when he was young," Lex cut in harshly. "Connor spent a large part of his life being a playboy, chasing one girl after the other and…"

"That part of my life is over. I love her, Mr. Luthor," Connor suddenly spoke. "I can't say I'm proud of my past, but the important part is that I have changed."

"Lex, honey, can I remind you of _your own _promiscuous past?" I dared to ask and saw Lily cringing. "Lily," I warned her.

"Mum, it's enough for us to know that you and dad still… because you'll always be young and all, but… can we just pretend you don't? At least in our presence?"

I started laughing. I couldn't help it anymore.

"We'll talk about this when you'll have your own kids," I just said.

"Wait, wait… I just found out about a relationship _she's been hiding_, may I emphasize, and now you talk about _kids_?" Lex turned to me.

"Can we just spare them this, Lex? You won't be able to separate them. You should've seem how worried Connor was when Lily was gone. He has genuine feelings toward her. And admit it, you reacted this way just because Oliver and I in the past…"

"Jessica, I think this discussion is over," Lex interrupted me. I knew he preferred not to even think that there had been something between me and Oliver once.

"Lex, it was ages ago and you know that you are the love of my life," I told him and took his hand.

"Exactly, so what's the problem here? Maybe Lily and Connor are meant to be together?" Oliver suggested.

"I know I have no right to stand in your way," Lex admitted, calming himself down a little, "but if you hurt my daughter," he turned to Connor, "I will hurt you. So really, really think about what you really feel toward her, because I don't want to see her heartbroken in the future."

"Of course, sir, thank you, sir," Connor just said, holding Lily's hand.

"Oh, Lily, come here! I was so afraid something would happen to you!" I got to her and finally hugged her.

"Now, can you please explain me how the hell you know me? Did the ring work? Will I really make it?" we suddenly heard Rokk's voice on top of it all.

Facing the family silly feuds must've been very confusing for him, I thought.

"Rokk, you saved my life twice," Clark turned to him to explain.

"Really? I saved _you_? That's amazing!" Rokk's eyes opened up widely. "So the ring worked? I really made it?"

"If you're talking about the Legion ring, then yes, it worked," Clark admitted.

"The Legion? I don't know what that is, but the idea was to being able to travel back and forward in time."

"Yes, thanks to that time travel you saved not only me, but…" Clark hesitated and then looked at Chloe.

I knew what he was thinking. The Legion had come to us, claiming that they hadn't heard about any Chloe Sullivan.

"That will be complicated," Clark finally sighed. "And I am not sure if I should tell you everything I know. You still need to go back in time one day to save me…" he realized.

"Ok, before I get an headache from all of that, I would rather take my family home," Lex spoke. "If you don't mind."

His hand was again holding mine and I wanted nothing else but to go home and make love to him.

"Of course," Clark said, "you can go."

"I'm not going," Lily said, "if you don't mind," she parroted her father.

"You're an adult, you can do what you want," I agreed before Lex could say anything. Or maybe he understood I wanted some time alone with him. "Alex?"

"I'll go to my place."

"Sure."

Before the Locians had taken them, we'd had a family dinner and then Alex and Lily had stayed in the mansion, but they hadn't lived there anymore.

"Rokk, so… why they had you? Why Locians took you? Were you their back up plan to get their hands on the ring?" Clark asked.

"Yes, they told me they would kill me if I didn't make it for them. I listened and I'm afraid they have all my notes. I didn't complete my work, but… they can figure it out if they smart enough."

By this time I and Lex were by the door, walking out.

I knew there was still danger on the horizon. Everything could change at any moment. The past wasn't certain anymore… but I refused to think about it all right now when I got the love of my life back. I needed some respite. I needed to stop thinking so hard and just feel for a moment.

* * *

When we got back home we ate something as we were both hungry and then Lex hit the shower.

During our absence the housekeepers cleaned everything up. The disorder I had woken up to was gone.

For a moment I was sitting by the table, alone, just thinking. It didn't matter that I tried not to. It just kept coming back. What if the Locians succeeded? What if they killed Clark? Then the world would've been so different and I wouldn't have even known that I should've saved him. And I wouldn't have the ring anymore and…

I closed my eyes and put the tips of my fingers to my temples, massaging them gently. My head was aching by now.

I sighed heavily and stood up, walked to the master bedroom and took the Legion ring out of my pocket.

Tomorrow I would figure out a way. Tomorrow I would fight again, I decided.

But today I needed to relax. I needed to spend this time with my husband.

I hid the ring in my drawer and walked into the bathroom.

Lex was just standing there, in the shower cabin, under a hot stream of water. His back to me, so I couldn't see his face. I took my clothes off and opened the glass door. He must've felt the waft of cold air, but he didn't react. I walked over to his body and snuggled up to his back, my arms around him, my face on the back of his neck, eyes closed. He was here now and I could enjoy him. I loved him so much. After all those years, I loved him. And I would always love only him.

He still didn't speak, but his arms crossed over my own.

I stroked his smooth chest now free of scars.

"I missed somebody calling me Jessica when you were gone," this came from my mouth out of all the things I could say. "I know it was just one long night, but… I still missed you so much. I hated to wake up without you there. And I was so scared you were gone forever…" my voice broke.

"I'm here and nothing will ever take me away from you," he assured me. "And you missed me calling you that, because I am the only one who does it."

"You never actually told me why," I noticed. "I call you Lex all the time instead of Alexander."

"You'd actually prefer Alexander?" he asked, nearly chuckling.

"Not really," I admitted. "Lex kind of stuck and it suits you. You will always be my Lex."

He finally turned around to face me, then cupped my face and said, "I call you Jessica because I like the sound of your full name. You are mine woman, my wife, a Luthor. Jess I could call my daughter if that was her name. You deserve some respect from me and therefore, you are Jessica to me. Mrs. Jessica Luthor, my wife."

"But I wasn't always Mrs. Luthor, was I?" I noticed.

He just smiled to me and said, "Maybe I knew all that time that you would eventually."

Then he kissed me slowly but intensely and my arms flung around him, pulling him closer.

After a while he pulled back and asked, "What's wrong?"

He must've felt it. I was kissing him, but I was doing it like… well, like it was the last time.

"Jessica, we're save. We are alive." His hand brushed my hair and his eyes met mine. "And I will always be here," he promised.

"You don't know that," I found myself saying. "If the Locians figure out how to make a ring… they will go back in time, kill Clark before he would have any chance to defend himself and… you will die in a car crash, you will drive off that bridge. I will never come to Smallville and…" I started panicking.

"Jessica, Jessica! Listen to me!" Lex raised his voice, holding me by my shoulders. "What is meant to be will _always _find a way. I firmly believe that we would've met anyway. Just in different circumstances."

"But I want _this _life. _These _children, _this _reality. I already know about the mirror world since Clark's been there. I don't love you out there. I let him kill you!" I yelled and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

"Just because it was the _mirror _world. Everything in there was distorted, but it is not the reality. It's just a reflection."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," I said. "I just want to love you."

Lex smiled sadly and started kissing me again, grabbing my hips and pulling me against his own, so I could feel the erection there. I gasped and blindly looked for the cabin door. It was time to go to bed. We were too tired for anything strenuous under the shower anyway.

Lex lay down on the bed and I straddled him, stroking his chest and then tracing a path down it with my lips. I took him in my mouth for a moment and suck on him while grazing my core against his leg.

"I want you to come from my cock, you know," he half chuckled, half moaned.

I just smiled and soon raised myself up, positioning myself until his cock sunk inside my core.

"That's much better," Lex hissed and reached for my face so we could kiss.

I started rocking over him, into his cock, back and forward while kissing him, joining my tongue with his.

"I love you so much…" he rasped against my mouth.

"And I love you too." I loved him so much it hurt. And I wasn't sure if that was a pleasant kind of pain at the moment. I was desperate. I couldn't imagine a life different than this one. I just couldn't lose it.

I speeded up over his cock, started squeezing him with my channel. He loved it, but it always made him come faster. I didn't need two orgasms tonight since we were both so tired, so it was fine.

I started coming, powerfully, looking down at his beautiful body, his bald head I loved so much, into his blue-gray eyes and then he let go too.

When we were done, I lay right next to him and we snuggled. I needed to feel him as close to me as possible. We feel into sleep immediately.

* * *

**Year 2023**

As Lex became younger and scarless, I started wondering if…

"What is it?" Lex asked, seeing the look on my face. "Are you ok? You weren't waiting for me to die, so you could take control over JeXCorp, were you?" he joked and winked at me.

"It's not funny, Lex!" I scolded him. "As a matter of fact, I was just wondering why your hair didn't grow back."

"So you want me with hair now?" he asked in confusion.

"Actually, no," I confessed. "I _love _your bald head. I was even afraid your hair would grow back once you have taken the cure, but… nothing actually happened."

"Well, I can explain it to you," Emil spoke, "if my theory is correct then your hair didn't grow back because of the meteor radiation. The cure was made out of Clark, so his natural environment didn't recognize your baldness as something that needed to be cured, but as something natural to your body. Or… the green meteor rock can hurt Clark, so that is why your hair will never grow back."

"I'm fine with it!" I exclaimed and Lex started laughing.

"Who am I to deny my wife my baldness if she actually loves it?" he asked.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 05**

I woke up but did not open my eyes just yet. It felt so good. It was just like any other ordinary morning in the weekend. Me lying in Lex's arms, the heat coming off of his body, his breath against the back of my neck as he was spooning me. All of this was so familiar, yet it never got old.

In the past the perspective of all those endless years we would spend together might've been terrifying. Could love really withstand so long? Could it truly conquer all? It'd turned out that it could. Even though we couldn't die of an old age and we could heal quickly with the help of VA, every single day was a gift. Every kiss. Every hug. Every exchanged look. Every touch. Every time we made love. It was all precious and we treated it so. Once our relationship and our love had lasted this long, it was paradoxically even harder to break apart. I couldn't imagine being with any other man and Lex with any other woman. It would feel wrong, unnatural.

I moaned quietly when Lex's hold on me tightened and he buried his face in my hair, then kissed the back of my head, an indication that he awoke as well.

I snuggled my back into his front, accidentally teasing him and feeling that he started getting hard. Only I didn't want to change positions just yet to give him release.

"Can we stay this way forever?" I asked groggily. "I don't ever want to get up from this bed or lose the hold on you."

Lex chuckled softly. Another thing that was so alike him and I loved so much. He very rarely truly laughed. When he was amused, he usually just chuckled and it was a sound I loved way too much right after the sound of his voice.

"If it was up to me, we would, but… I'm afraid we are still needed in the world," he answered.

He was right. We weren't alone. We had friends to whom we were loyal. We had family. And it was all a blessing. I wouldn't like to live without them.

There was also the nudging case I tried so hard not to remember for another few precious minutes.

The truth was that no one and nothing in this world was safe. Not when there was an enemy trying to go back in time to destroy it.

I couldn't just lie here in the arms of my beloved husband and wait for him to disappear or wait to wake up in a completely different reality I wouldn't even realize that wasn't the right one.

"Lex, I think you need something," I said and turned on my back, my face directed toward Lex and my hand looking for his erection.

"So you did notice," he said with a smirk and then kissed me.

"Oh, how could I not?" I asked. "After all, you're pretty well equipped. I couldn't not notice."

"Pretty well, hah?" he chuckled again and found himself on me, sliding inside my channel as my legs were already spread for him.

* * *

When Lex went to JeXCorp to work, I stayed home and started thinking.

The Locians wanted to go back in time to kill Clark. The ring was in the process of being made, but yet, I was in the possession of Clark's ring. The one he'd been given to by the Legion in the past.

I knew that Clark would never deliver it to Locians, because there would be no future and everyone he'd ever saved would either die or never come to Smallville. _I _would never come to Smallville!

I also knew that if Clark had had the ring right now, he would've destroyed it. Even if Rokk created the very first one, it would still be destroyed by Clark eventually. It would be the necessary end of the circle.

I couldn't give the ring back or admit I had it just yet, because I couldn't risk losing Lex.

What if somehow the Locians did go back in time, but something would go wrong? What if I would have to be the one to fix it? I needed that ring.

Only what could I alone do to save my family? To save my life and everything that had ever mattered to me?

And suddenly it came to me. And it was so obvious.

There had to be a Legion for the rings to be used. The ring had been… no, it _would _be created and used by the Legion!

All the time traveling occurring in the past seemed to be very confusing now, but this answer wasn't. There was one person that had changed everything for me. One person that had visited me in the past and given me hope. A person I'd felt strangely connected to even though we'd barely gotten to know each other.

It was Imra.

I needed to find Imra!

* * *

I was so sure about this.

I called Clark. I needed to talk to him face to face, but he said he wanted me to come to the Watchtower anyway tonight and bring Lex with me. It had something to do with Rokk.

Rokk, a part of the future Legion! It had to be a sign. Nothing happened without a reason and I believed that.

What had Imra said to me, when I'd asked in my wedding day with Lex in the past, if I would ever see her again? Nothing. She'd said nothing. She'd just smiled to me and come back to the future.

She'd smiled because she'd known something I couldn't at the time! What if she'd known me in person all along? What if all that she'd told me was just a game? What if she'd needed to do that? She'd known she couldn't say the whole truth.

My head was spinning as I walked with Lex into the Watchtower tonight.

To my astonishment, I saw another part of the Legion. It wasn't Imra, but it was the third missing link, Garth.

"Gath!" I said his name before I could stop myself.

"Does _everyone_ know who I am? I mean… _everyone?"_ he asked. "It's so cool!" He jumped with excitement.

It was the Garth I remembered. Even though I'd only met him briefly, I remembered that he was the youngest, always acting more like a teenager than an adult.

"Jessica, Lex," Clark welcomed us. "What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked me alone.

"I think it's meant to be, because…" I started, "I wanted you to help me find Imra."

"The last piece of the Legion," Clark noticed. "I spoke to the Council today and they have been planning on creating a legion of heroes to help the universe become a peaceful place for a while now."

The Council consisted of all the planet's representatives that sat together in peace, trying to figure a way for us all to coexist. Clark was the Earth's representative. He wasn't human as he wasn't born on this planet, but it was the people's choice. And it was a great one.

"So, what now? We'll just create that Legion?" Garth asked. "And the Earth is saved?"

"It's not that simple," Clark turned to him. "In fact, it will get more and more complicated. The Legion I know travelled through time. You still need to come back to save me."

"To save you? We actually saved your life?" Garth got excited. "That's so cool!"

"I don't think I like this guy," I heard Bart's quiet mutter and I smiled. Those two were very much alike, so it was only natural for Bart to feel threatened.

"You also saved my life," Chloe cut in. "Thanks to the Legion, I am here."

"Wait a minute," Lex spoke, "I think you're talking about two separate matters. The Locians have nothing to do with the Legion except that they kidnapped Rokk."

"The Legion is the only thing that can stop them," Clark told him. "Even if the Locians find a way to make their own ring, Rokk can finish his work and we can fight back. The Legion makes sure the past doesn't change. We make sure the Locians are defeated. The Council is very concerned about them as their leader did not show up today. They are ready for war."

"Locians are vicious. I was saying that from the very beginning of the Alliance," Chloe said. "Of course, no one listened."

"We did listen, Chloe," Clark turned to her, "but I can't just forbid them joining the Alliance and opening the Bridge on their planet. If we are all equal, then we are all equal."

"But they're a race that loves war, not peace," Lex supported Chloe. "I suspected from the beginning that they would become a problem, a liability rather than an ally."

"Still, we had no choice. I always say that we have to preserve peace for all cost," Clark was stubborn by this point. "Jess said we should find Imra and I agree. That is our priority, because without her, there will not be a Legion."

"We're just three people," Rokk spoke, "and the Legion will have to be much more than this."

"I know, but you are the ones that saved me. We cannot sent somebody else. We have to follow the history."

"All that time travelling is very confusing," Bart huffed, "can't we just not make the ring and then nothing will be changed?"

"No!" I found myself raising my voice and everyone turned to look at me.

"Why not? Maybe Clark can manage on his own? Wthout any help? You don't know if he even needed it!"

"I was almost dead when the Legion came to save me, Bart," Clark denied. "So yes, I need the help. The me in the past needs it."

"And I need it too!" I supported Clark. "I…" I looked at Lex, feeling a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I just…"

Lex's hand closed around mine.

"It's ok, honey. They understand."

"Without Imra... without that hope she'd given me in the past… without her presence… maybe I would've still survived… Maybe her not showing up and confusing me would've turned for the best, but I can't stop thinking that there was something else there, something deeper, a message between the lines. A message that she is needed. She is needed right now. She knew about the future, yet she didn't tell us the most important thing. She knew we would have to learn it all in our own time. She did need to talk to me twice. She did need to make an appearance, so I could feel that strange connection we would have. I _know _I am supposed to find her. I just know it!"

When I said it, I was suddenly afraid they would all look at me like I was crazy. I certainly did sound so. For them what I said must've not seemed essential. The Legion had saved Clark's life while mine hadn't really been in any danger back then.

Only they actually did not look at me weird. I knew that Clark, Lois, Chloe and Oliver would understand as they wouldn't bare to lose the ones they loved like I'd had in the past. I was surprised that both Rokk and Garth looked at me like they were sorry for what I'd been through, but also like they were admiring me and my strength. I barely forgot that mine and Lex's story was almost as famous as Clark's AKA Kal-El's since we were all connected. Everyone knew that I was the one to change Lex. That he'd done it all for me and for love. The six of us, all paired up, were role models for relationships. We were all a proof that it was possible to find true love and be together forever. Even the slightest change might have serious consequences. It was like a butterfly effect. We couldn't know what would affect us in what way.

"Rokk and Garth, you need to go to a Council meeting tomorrow morning, regarding the creation of the Legion," Clark said. "Jess, we will find Imra. It won't be that hard those days, will it? We just need to do this before the Council gives Rokk and Garth someone else to work with… One more thing, Rokk, how far are you with the ring?"

"I'm almost done. I managed to recreate my research. I just need the final touch… Actually," he suddenly thought, "Garth, I think I need you."

"Me? Why?"

"You can generate and manipulate electricity, is that right?"

"Yes."

"I can work with magnetic power and together… together we can make this ring work properly. Come with me."

"Do whatever you can as fast as you can," Clark agreed and sent them away. "Chloe, I need you to locate Imra."

"Any last name? That would make things so much easier," Chloe said, directing herself toward the computers.

"Sorry, that's all we know," Clark said. "Unless…" He turned to us.

We all just shook our heads.

"I'll do what I can," Chloe said, "but I do not promise anything. I could send a message that we're looking for her…"

"No, no messages," Lex disagreed. "The Locians might hear it."

"Fine."

Suddenly my head was pierced with a sharp pain like a needle and I almost bent in half, my hands covering my temples.

"Jessica, honey? What is it?" Lex asked me, placing his hand on my back with care. "Jessica?"

_You're looking for me… I can feel it…_ I heard a very familiar voice in my head and I just couldn't believe it. _They've got me! I'm a prisoner and I can hear their thoughts. Something about Kal-El and time traveling. Something about Lex Luthor. What do I have to do with any of that?_

"Oh, my God…" I rasped as the connection was broken. "Oh… my… god!" I repeated as I straightened myself up again.

"What? Jessica, what is it?" Lex asked, now sounding really scared. "Honey, please tell me what's wrong!"

"She's a telepath, isn't she?" I asked Clark.

"Who is?"

"Imra. She's just contacted me. They've got her. Locians. And they'll kill her if we don't do something."

"How did she know we were looking for her?"

"She must've felt it! It's not a time for questions! We need to save her!"

* * *

The team was ready and I decided I would go along.

"I'll go too," Alex suddenly volunteered. "What? I've been in those dungeons once, so I can be useful."

I wasn't sure if that was such a good idea. What if something happened to him?

"Mum, I'll be fine, you'll see," he said and grabbed a weapon like it was already decided.

"I'll stay here," I heard Lily saying and noticed her taking Connor's hand. I really needed to get used to a lot of things.

"Jessica, I still think you should stay," Lex came over to me, looking at me worryingly.

"Lex, I need to go, don't you understand? I feel like I, out of you all, _have _to."

"It will be dangerous," he noticed.

"Isn't anything those days?" I sighed and prepared myself.

Clark and Oliver were already waiting for us.

"You know what, Connor?" Oliver suddenly said. "I kind of like your relationship with Lily, at least you're not first in line to every battle like you used to."

"Don't tease him," Chloe cut in, "and go now! Imra might be in serious trouble. She clearly asked for help."

"If we don't save her…" I started.

"It's alright," Lex told me while looking me in the eye. "We will, honey, I promise you."

"Lex, maybe you should…" that was Clark.

"If my wife goes down there, then I'm going with," Lex just answered him in such a decisive voice that Clark probably thought it would be better not to start a fight over the issue and just let it go.

I didn't really know what to think of Lex coming along. I was anxious to keep being by his side, but in the same time afraid that this time he might get hurt. Only Clark was going too, so if we were to be safe with anyone, it was with him, with Superman.

"I still can't believe we didn't find her the first time," Oliver voiced his thoughts on the way.

"For me it's obvious," I turned to him, "once you saved Rokk, they found Imra, so they could be sure the Legion will not be completed."

"Only they underestimated Imra's telekinetic abilities," Alex added. "Mum, why is she so important for you?"

"She gave me hope when I needed it the most. She gave me a reason to go on," I simply said and turned away, because I wasn't really in the mood for memories. If this didn't work out… I preferred not to think of that one either.

* * *

"Wait, wait!" I raised my voice when we got to the right place in one of Ollie's fastest shuttles. Clark, naturally, was already there, but he was careful. He was to assess the situation and do something if needed and if not, he was to wait.

As it turned out, his help was, indeed, needed, because once I stepped out of the vehicle, I heard Imra's frantic thoughts.

_Whoever's out there… please, help me! Please! I can't run anymore…_

"She's running from something," I repeated out loud, so the rest could hear.

"We know," Oliver answered. "I can hear her too. She must've been getting desperate… Chloe, can you locate her?" he asked to his earpiece.

Chloe was able to do that while tracing the magnetic waves Imra was sending her messages by.

"She's in the tunnels underground," Oliver explained and went ahead. "Clark, can you hear me? What's happening?... When Clark got here, they wanted to torture her, so he distracted them, giving her an opportunity to run… this way!" Oliver explained what he heard and commanded us.

As I was getting closer to Imra, my heart was also beating faster. She had no idea who I was, but somehow, I felt so connected to her. I realized that we'd only met twice in the past, but it didn't seem to matter. I remembered the disappointment when she'd told me she'd had to get back to her own time. Now I knew what those times looked like because I lived in them too.

Oliver led us to the tunnels from the other side.

"I saw the blueprints! This way!"

He kicked the manhole open.

I heard her move clearly now. It was like I could feel her fear.

"She's terrified," I said out loud. "Do you feel it?"

They shook their heads. So maybe the connection I had with Imra was stronger, but she didn't know me yet, did she? So how that happened? Some things couldn't be explained even with our technology, I decided.

Suddenly, I heard feet hitting the ground, water splashing and then came a scream.

"Get away from me!" I recognized the voice. It was her.

"Alex, damn it!" Lex cursed when Alex went forward into the manhole.

"Alex!" I yelled after him too, angry that he would get hurt because of his recklessness.

Lex followed him and I went inside after Oliver. Alex was my son and I felt the need to protect him even if he was an adult. Sometimes I had the impression that he still thought like a little boy.

"Help! Help me!" Imra cried when she saw Alex and he stood in the way of the Locian that was chasing her.

The alien threw a blow at him with his weird weapon and Oliver shot an arrow in response. The weapon was gone and Alex successfully knocked the Locian out with his own.

"Can we kill him?" he asked the stupid question.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"No, we can't! We can arrest him and hand him over to the right authorities."

"Hey, are you alright?" I heard Alex asking Imra who was just standing there, shaking.

She seemed like the girl I remembered although she wasn't dressed in red, but her hair was the same length and color.

"I… I guess so…" she said in a hoarse voice. "Thank you."

"Imra?" I came closer to her, passing both Lex and Oliver. "Imra, you're alright!" I couldn't help it. I saw her for the first time for so many years and I'd missed her. I'd missed her so badly. I didn't know why. I just had.

So I hugged her and felt her tensing against me.

"I'm sorry…" I said and let her go. "I'm freaking you out."

"Does this have something to do with that... ring for time traveling?" she asked me, connecting the dots so fast I was impressed. "I heard a few words from them," she pointed at the Locian on the ground, "and I mostly don't understand, but…"

"Yes, it has everything to do with time travel," I answered her.

"We need to get out of here," Oliver said and in this moment Clark flew through the entrance.

"I'll take care of him." He pointed the unconscious Locian.

"Wait a minute…" Imra started, gaping at him. "You're Superman! And… oh, my! You're Lex Luthor… and you must be Jessica!" she exclaimed. She couldn't notice that before as it was dark, but Lex's head was easy to spot. "And you're Alexander Luthor Junior and the Green Arrow… I feel honored, but… what this is all about?"

"First, we need to get out of here," Oliver repeated. "We can chat later."

We finally got back to the shuttle.

"Can someone, please, tell me what's going on? Why they took me? Why me?" Imra asked again when we were flying away.

"Because believe it or not," I started, "you are very important to me," I informed her. "You've heard of me, haven't you?"

"Of course, ever since I was little I heard stories about you, your love to Lex Luthor and about Kal-El," Imra answered. "I just don't understand why I feel like I know you since I clearly never met you before." She frowned.

"You didn't, but I did meet you. You traveled back in time along with two other members of the Legion."

"The Legion?"

"Long story," Alex cut it.

"I will explain everything, but first you need to know that you came to me and you gave me hope that I would be happy again. It was when Lex was dead and I was broken," I told her.

"I… I need some air," she gasped, breathing deeply. "I'm just a simple girl."

"So am I," I assured her. "We all are. Even Clark, under the Superman costume, he is just a man, not ordinary, but he is human at heart just like we all are."

"So I travelled back for you?" She wanted to know.

"Actually, you and the Legion saved Clark's and Chloe's lives."

"Queen's, right?" She asked.

Was it possible that they'd claimed to never have heard of Chloe Sullivan because they'd known her as Chloe Queen? But they would've connected the facts, wouldn't they? There was always only one Chloe connected to Clark.

Had the future been truly changed?

We came back and while the rest was explaining everything to Imra, I was thinking hard.

And I was devastated.

People always thought they should secure their future, but I… I had to protect my past, I realized.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 06**

When the talks were over, I went over to Clark.

"They can't just keep doing this," I told him, "I thought we were in alliance. They should've been stopped by now."

"You mean Locians?" Clark made sure.

"Yes, I mean them. Clark, what should we do?"

"I've already reported them once to the Council and now I am going to do it again."

"It didn't work the first time! What if they managed to make the ring already?" I asked in both anger and fear.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" he said and then flew out the window, still wearing his Superman suit.

"You'd think that after all those years he should've been bored with this silly costume," I heard Oliver's voice right behind me.

I laughed. I always appreciated his jokes and was very grateful now that he cheered me up.

"I could say the same about your Green Arrow outfit," I noticed and turned around to look at him.

"It's tasteful. Also, I don't wear cape and such strong colors." He winked at me. "You're alright?"

"Yeah," I lied to him and then noticed Lex from across the room, just leaving the Watchtower. "Excuse me," I said to Ollie and went to catch my husband. "Lex!"

He turned in the door.

"Are you leaving? I thought we would wait for Clark and see what news he has."

"I was just about to get some air," Lex explained.

"I need to talk to you and it would be better if we were alone," I said urgently, thinking that it would be a good moment for that kind of talk.

"Then come with me."

I looked back, seeing Oliver still watching me carefully while the rest of my friends were pretty preoccupied with forming the Legion and recruiting other members as well.

"What if we just… stop existing?" I finally asked Lex when we found ourselves outside. I hugged myself even though it wasn't really cold.

"What are you talking about?" He frowned at me. "We can't just…"

"Every second is precious now, Lex," my voice grew urgent, "what if Locians figure it all out and there will be no coming back?" I asked the question I feared the most.

"I think you're worrying a little bit too much. We're all doing the best we can."

"Maybe it's not enough," I told him. "I just can't seem to shake this strange feeling I have. It's like something bad's gonna happen." I confessed and shivered.

"Nothing will happen, honey, we're together and we'll always be," Lex assured me, putting his hands on my arms and then bringing me closer into his embrace. I snuggled into his chest, feeling the warm coming from his body, but it didn't make me feel less scared.

"I promise you that I will never let you go," he whispered into my ear and stroke my cold arms with his hands so I would get warmer.

I wanted to tell him that his promises were nothing right now, because he couldn't control everything. I knew we were doomed. I didn't know where it came from, I could just feel it. Something would happen and there would be nothing I would be able to do about it.

* * *

When we came back to Watchtower, Clark was already there and I could tell by the look on his face that whatever he'd found out wasn't good.

"It turns out that Locians put their hands on a nuclear weapon," he started, "the kind that can sweep the whole Earth and leave nothing behind."

"I thought we had better weapons than this," Lex said, "didn't we get rid of the nuclear ones in the space? We use only the natural energy now to power everything. It's a special JeXCorp's program to save the environment."

"Well, apparently not every weapon was rid of," Clark informed, "and now we have a problem. The Council wants them to be stopped, but we all need to be extra careful now. They have a home to come back to, but we don't, because this is our home." He made a circular gesture of his arms.

"We need to find another planet to live on," Lex came up with and we all looked at him strangely. "What? No, I don't mean for now. I mean for the future. Even if we stop them, who knows what or who will come later. We need to have a backup plan. The Sun will not burn forever either and when it explodes, there will be no Earth."

"That will happen in millions of years," Chloe spoke.

"But it will happen eventually."

Millions of years? I thought and for the first time, I was scared of forever. What will happen in another hundred years? And then another? Happy family? Life in peace? Or depression and emptiness? Lack of purpose? Were people really meant to live forever? Was crossing my mind at the moment.

I guessed there was no point in thinking about it now. I had bigger problems and forever might be scary, but it was forever with the people I loved, after all.

* * *

When we finally got home, it was almost midnight. Lex swept me into his arms and started kissing. He must've sensed the strange mood I was in, the worry still there, so he did the best he could to make me feel better, to relax me.

We made love slowly and then we snuggled as we were falling asleep.

Only I couldn't sleep.

I felt like I should act and I should do it now. Later might be too late.

Finally, with a decision made, I gently disentangled myself from Lex's arms and legs and got up, put my robe on and walked out of the room, gathering my clothes on the way.

When I found myself downstairs in the study, I pulled out my phone and called Imra.

"I'm sorry, I know it's late, but I need to talk to you in private. I need your help, Imra, you are and always were my last hope."

She was still getting used to the fact that I knew her, believed in her and trusted her and she sounded surprised, but said yes. She couldn't sleep either, so there were two of us.

* * *

I flew to her apartment in the city.

"Hi, I hope you're not mad at me for coming so late," I said when she opened the door for me.

"As I said, I couldn't sleep." She smiled at me a little sheepishly.

"I'm not some royalty or movie star, you know," I told her, "you can treat me as a normal human being."

"It's just… I was raised on stories about you and Superman and now…"

"Yes, I can understand that. You probably idolized Clark, didn't you?" I asked when coming inside her apartment.

"Actually, I was more into your husband's story. The darkness that was in him was fascinating… no offence," she added quickly like she didn't know how I would react to that. "I didn't mean to bring any painful memories."

"It's fine, it happened over a hundred years ago." I shrugged. Still, while not saying it out loud, I thought that the darkness was still there in Lex. It would never really go away, but he tried to be a decent man and I loved him for it.

"Imra, listen… Did Clark tell you _everything_?" I asked when we sat down and I accepted a cup of streaming coffee from her.

"I guess so...Yes. Once the Legion is up and running, we will have to go back in time to save him. It's such a big responsibility that… I don't know. I'm just scared I'll let him down."

"You won't," I assured her, "I believe in you." I placed my hand on hers for a moment and then went on, "Is that why you couldn't sleep?"

She just nodded.

"I'm sorry to burden you with this, but saving Clark's life isn't the only task you will have," I started. "Remember when I told you that you saved me? That you gave me hope?"

"Yes." She nodded slowly.

"I need you to do just this for me."

"Give me the details and I will do my best," she promised.

"You'll need to say and do _exactly _what I tell you," I instructed her. "It's very important."

I had no idea if the future was actually changed. If what I lived in was the same future Imra had known when she'd met me all those years ago. The fact that they knew Chloe could be a proof that Clark had changed something valid when saving her and then giving his blood to create VA… I was quickly getting lost in all those thoughts, so I decided to just focus on recreating the past the best way I could so nothing else would be changed.

"I'm pretty sure the slip about Lex was intentional from your part," I finished instructing her. "It was enough to seed doubt in my mind, but not enough to make me realize what would actually happen."

"Are you sure you want me to do all of this?" Imra asked, hesitantly. "What can it help really? You still thought you would never get him back."

"Maybe it'll help, maybe not, but I can't afford changing anything, Imra. You need to do what I just told you, it's essential. I'm finally starting to understand…" I said and stopped. Maybe Chloe didn't matter? Clark had already told the Legion today to pretend not to know Chloe, so they wouldn't change anything. Maybe he'd had to learn to preserve life for all cost by himself? Maybe we'd never meant to know the whole truth back then, so we could get to the right point eventually? Maybe the past couldn't be changed because _the future was already there_? Maybe Lex believed in this and that was why he wasn't panicking like I was now.

"You made me believe in miracles, Imra, and I was and will be forever grateful for that," I spoke to her.

"Ok… do you realize how hard it is to take credits for something I haven't done yet?" she asked, actually terrified and I laughed.

"I can only imagine," I agreed with her.

* * *

The Legion went back in time and I was the witness. It was more urgent than the danger of war with the Locians. Clark wanted Imra, Garth and Rokk to patch the holes that were still there whereas he flew to another Council meeting.

As I was waiting for them all to return, a sudden realization struck me.

I experienced changes in time myself and I had no recollection of them. I remembered when Clark had informed me he'd gone back in time to save me and then his father had died, because death had had to take someone. I remembered when Lois had gone to the future and how it'd never happened once Clark had stopped it from happening.

What I didn't remember were the details of those alternative universes, of those events that might've come to past, but had been stopped.

The present was here and I was living it, so the past _did _happen. All that had happened in the past, even if it seemed that it could be changed, it couldn't really. It was _done_. The time had already been successfully altered. The present would not change. It was like a crazy time loop, all the books and movies were telling us how it worked. The past, present and future were always present and even though we tried to change the past, we couldn't, unless in the future it'd already been changed. The fate, time, one could call it as they wanted, knew what would happen and what wouldn't. No matter what we or the Locians did, it would all lead to this moment.

I thought about Lex, about our meeting, our love, mistakes, death…

I forgot about waiting and I just stormed out of the Watchtower, directing myself to JeXCorp. Today Lex was supposed to be working.

I was right, I thought when I walked into his office. He was sitting by his desk over some papers.

"Lex!" I called him, my voice raised in excitement.

"Jessica," he looked at me, then raised from his chair and made his way to me. "What happened? Are you alright?" His blue gray eyes were piercing into mine. I could tell he was worried.

"We are all safe, Lex," I told him. "It all already happened, so no one and nothing can change anything! Nothing will ever separate us! We've already won! If something was about to be changed, we wouldn't have lived in this reality right now."

He frowned. "What are you talking about?"

I tried to explain this as best as I could. "Past, present, future, it's all connected. Hundred years ago this future was already there, here… call it as you want… and it's like 'the time' knew what would happen… all those prophecies… Nothing can be changed. It's like fate… you know something will happen and you do everything you can not to let it happen, but… it turns out it will happen eventually because of you, because you were meant to know it in order to act."

"Jessica, I understand you," he said, "but… I don't believe it."

"What? Why?" Now I was the one who didn't understand. "I know it's hard to grasp, but…"

"I was showed two possible futures and I had a choice," he simply said. "I could have chosen either way."

"Your mother might've showed you that, but she already knew what would happen. She just…"

"What? She was just making sure?" Lex raised his eyebrow. "Stop, please, stop thinking and worrying so hard."

"But…"

"I don't believe it," he repeated, interrupting me once again, "you know why? Because I could take the Legion ring any minute and I could go back in time and change whatever I could imagine. I could kill some important historic figure and everything would have been different now."

I could just shake my head. "No, no," I said.

"Hell, I could kill myself in the past and then what?"

"Lex, please, stop."

"But it's the truth, Jessica," he said in a more gentler voice and put his hands on my shoulders. "If I killed myself in the past, I would create a paradox in time, resetting myself," he explained.

Thinking of this possibility was too painful for me to bear.

"Lex…" I just gasped.

"Besides," he continued ruthlessly, "Clark told me about Doomsday. Did you forget about the Legion coming to him the second time and warning him, because he was dead in their future? That was altering the past to change the outcome."

"But… how can we ever be safe in this world if this is the truth?" I whispered, shaking, crashed by the opportunities presented to me by the one person I feared the most to lose.

"We don't. We can only hope for the best and we can only ban the rings from being used."

"We need to destroy them," I found myself saying. "All of them! If somebody does something… we might never meet… Lex…"

"Come here, honey, it's ok, it will be fine," he murmured and swept me into his arms.

It didn't help though. I was shivering and I clang to him for dear life, reveling in the feel of him, his smell, his heat, but still, I didn't feel any better.

If he was right…

Wasn't it better to believe my version?

Also, another question came to my mind. Had Clark given the Legion today two tasks instead of one? Had he told Rokk to come back to the day Doomsday had been defeated and warn the younger version of himself that he would die?

* * *

I was so shaken that Lex decided to stop working for the day and just take me home.

He prepared a bath for me, but even soaking in a hot and bubbly water didn't calm me down.

Then we found ourselves in bed and I clang to him again, straddling him and making desperate love to him, feeling him moving inside of me, feeling him being alive. I couldn't focus though, it was like I was there and I wasn't in the same time. Like I was so… numb. Why?

What was happening to me? After such crazy thoughts… I could think I was going crazy, couldn't I?

I still had the Legion ring hidden, but if I ever had to use it, would I even remember having to?


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 07**

Why was I so numb? I was wondering.

Ever since I accepted that something might be changed, I felt numb. It was like I didn't care anymore. I was fighting hard to come up with a theory that would assure me that my life would remain the same, but I couldn't and… I felt less and less with every day like I was trying to protect myself from getting hurt by not feeling anything.

I begun to slowly accepting the truth and I didn't even understand the reason why I was giving up. I should just make the best of what I had and not thinking about the what if. That wasn't a way to live.

Maybe the words "let it go" really had more meaning than anyone would think. Maybe we all should follow them. Was there any other way to live in this world?

* * *

The Council's negotiation with the Locians failed and we were about to face a great danger.

"We're at the brick of war," Clark told us. "The Council asked us to go on a mission to neutralize the weapon the Locians have."

"How do you plan on doing this, Clark?" Oliver asked, clearly agitated. "It's nuclear and they can launch it anytime!"

"There is really no other choice, Oliver," Clark answered, not letting himself be provoked. "You… if you want to go of course," he corrected himself while looking at us all gathered in Watchtower, the whole Justice League with additions like me or Chloe. Lois was at home, feeling like a normal pregnant woman and she was due soon. The Legion was present after they'd successfully accomplished their first mission.

I had only a brief talk with Imra, but she'd assured me that she'd done exactly what I'd asked for. She had been so happy, I remembered, so happy that she'd done this for me. Yet, somehow I'd still felt numb and couldn't really understand it. When I'd imagined that moment in the past I'd been reacting differently.

Why nothing was like you imagined? Not anymore?

Oliver finally agreed to do what the Council asked the League to do, but he was still skeptical. I couldn't blame him really. Dealing with a nuclear weapon wasn't just defending someone who was being attacked on the street. The bigger things were always handled by Clark alone. This was different. This time he needed help.

Of course, not only we were going. We would get help from all the warriors from out of space that were living on Earth now.

"Wait, what did you just say?" I heard Lex frowning at me. "You are not going anywhere, Jessica. It's too dangerous."

"Excuse me?" I asked him, getting angry with him. "You can't tell me what I can and cannot do!"

"And I never do, but this is different. You can get hurt! Hell, you can even die!"

"Our son is going there, Lex," I told him, doing my best not to start yelling. "And I need to be there."

"To what? You won't be able to protect him. I'm not going and you know why? I don't have any experience in a battle. I was never the one to protect things, I was the one being attacked all those years when the Justice League was created."

"Well, you were doing evil things back there, so naturally…"

"Lex, Jessica," Clark suddenly interrupted us and I realized that everyone was staring, including our new friends. Nice example I was giving to my children and Imra who'd just seen me broken in the past because Lex had been dead once. "This is not the time for fighting," Clark said. I knew he was serious, otherwise he would just call me Jess. "This is dead serious and Lex, I'm sorry, but we need every pair of hands we can get. If Jess wants to, she is free to go, but with the Legion and Alex," he emphasized. "I will not let you go anywhere alone," he turned to me.

"I'm fine with it." I'd been trained by both Clark and Oliver in the past hundreds years and I was pretty good at combat. Lex, on the other hand, had refused any help and been running the company with his sister, Tess. I never expected more as I knew it was hard as it was for him to try be friends with the Queens.

"Alex," Lex turned to his son, his voice urgent and as cold as steel, "I'm counting on you to take care of your mother."

"Of course, dad," Alex promised and then Lex just walked out of the room.

I didn't have time to run after him. I knew he would get over it. He still lived with the guilt and it wasn't something that could just go away. He'd drowned in the darkness once and it'd been too deep as not to leave any permanent marks. Also, I could understand him. He'd been having visions of me dying or being dead in the past and we were still together and safe. He didn't want to lose it all now. Where and who would he be, then?

"Anyone else here wants to go?" Clark made sure, not holding anything against Lex either. He knew him almost as well as I did.

Oliver was the only one who came to me afterwards and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Ollie, thank you. I'll be fine."

I could tell he was still worried though. All those years and both Oliver and Lex still couldn't trust each other. Now, when our children were together, it would get even harder. They would always see each other on birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases… and they would still hate each other.

* * *

"How far is the operation?" I asked and received an information through my earpiece from Chloe that was, as usual, sitting in Watchtower.

"Superman approaches the bomb," she told me, "the Alfa team has just created a diversion. Your unit need to go in now to circle the enemy and cut their way out… Victor's in the command centre, doing his best to prevent the bomb from going off."

"Copy that," I confirmed receiving the information. "We need to go," I told my team.

I still had no idea why I was the one in charge, but I guessed Clark trusted me the most. Alex was right by my side and then there was the Legion. Also, we had a few aliens I didn't even know the names of by our side. The most important thing was that some of them agreed to help. They liked it here on Earth and didn't want to lose it. Also, there was not enough time to evacuate, so I guessed they preferred to make sure by themselves that we were all safe. Always more hands to help… well, technically one of them had claws, but it wasn't the point.

"Go in! Now!" I gave an order and the males kicked the door open, almost bumping into the retrieving Locians.

The fight on the other side was on.

I found myself being thrown against the wall by Alex who just covered me as he was fighting for me.

"Alexander!" I called him by his full name, indicating how angry I was with him. Lex must've spoke to him after the meeting in Watchtower and convinced him to keep me away from the battle after all.

"You're my mother and I will not let you get hurt!" he just yelled to me in response.

I tried to get out, but in the same moment I was attacked by a Locian.

I fired my gun, having no choice but to shoot him as he also had a weapon.

The number of enemies was gradually dwindling. Some surrendered, some were killed or wounded.

That was when I hurt the alarm indicating that the bomb was set to go off.

"Watchtower?!" I roared.

"Everything is under control. Superman has just taken hold of the bomb and he's flying into the space."

I released a breath I was holding.

Then I heard Black Canary screaming, "Oliver, watch out!"

"Oliver!" This time it was AC.

I got away from Alex before he managed to stop me and I ran into the next room, assessing the situation.

If they wouldn't let me fight, at least I could help someone, I thought.

What I saw turned my blood to ice.

Oliver was lying on the floor and he wasn't moving.

"Ollie!" I screamed, feeling pain I didn't see coming. "Ollie!" I ran to him and dropped to my knees by his body. "Ollie!" I cupped his face in my hands and shook him. "Ollie, please, you can't be dead!" Tears ran down my face.

He still wasn't moving. He was just lying there, motionless with his eyes closed.

"No… You can't…" I sniffed when I kept on shaking him, hoping he would wake up.

"He was struck with a weapon we had no idea the Locians possessed. It releases an impulse that freezes the blood and stops the heart, also it destroys brain cells on the spot," I heard coming from Black Canary. If she was here, it meant that the battle was over and Clark succeeded. But for what cost?

I could just keep cupping Oliver's handsome face in my hands and keep weeping, keep looking at his closed eyes, wishing for them to open even though I knew there was no hope. He was _gone_.

I never really appreciated him, I never thought how much he meant to me. At least till this point, I realized.

He'd been there for me once when I'd been grieving. He'd been my friend, at some point my lover, my companion. He'd killed Lex, but had been so broken afterwards, regretted it so much that I'd forgiven him. We'd been just two broken people and who knew what would've happened if it hadn't been for his affection for Chloe and Lex coming back to life.

And now Oliver was dead. Forever.

There was no coming back. All I had left was the eternity without him, without my friend. I would see his son, probably my future son in law, Connor, grieving. Chloe, Clark… Lily as she loved Connor… The whole Justice League, the whole world, everyone that had been saved by the Green Arrow would miss him dearly.

The only person who probably wouldn't care as much was Lex and it pained me like a knife going straight into my heart. Lex was and would always be jealous of Oliver, of what I'd had with him once. He couldn't be jealous of Clark as Clark had always been his friend, with a small break. With Oliver Lex had had a grudge reaching back the times when they'd had been in a boarding school.

"Jess… Jessica... Answer me!" I didn't even realize that Chloe was screaming into my earpiece for some time now.

I just shook my head and let Bart help me out to a standing position. I didn't have the heart to talk to Chloe now. I just couldn't do it.

Also, I couldn't look at Connor who just knelt down in front of his father's cold body.

* * *

I couldn't get through the funeral.

I just stood in the back, held by Lex's strong arms. Otherwise I would be lying on the ground now.

Oliver's death took a great toll on me. I'd known him for too long. I'd shared too much history with him to just brush it off and move on. I realized that the longest one knew a person, the bigger the pain was when they were gone.

Lex was standing stiffly, I could feel it as he held me. I could also tell that he was wondering why I was hurting more than Chloe herself.

It was actually a perfect question, I thought as I was watching the Queen widow in the distance. She was standing by the casket, Connor's arm draped around her, but she wasn't crying. Connor was. Even Lily was as she was standing right next to him, holding his free hand.

Chloe wasn't. Her expression was hard and there was sadness in there, but I was sure I would've looked entirely different if Lex had been the one to die. I shivered on the very thought of it and snuggled closer into his chest, but it was the truth. I would've been a wreck.

"Do you think she's still in shock?" I asked Lex, looking up at his face.

"Maybe." He shrugged.

"Lex, she doesn't… she doesn't act like she just lost the love of her life," I finally spoke the obvious out loud.

"Then maybe Oliver wasn't the love of her life." I was taken aback by the hard tone in Lex's voice.

"Lex, I know you didn't like Oliver much, but why are you like this? This is serious! He is dead!" I felt tears stinging my eyes again and I wiped them with my sleeve.

Lex was looking at me weirdly and I didn't know what the expression on his face meant. And I should know. After all, I knew him better than anyone else.

* * *

"From now on there is no travelling in time," Clark was saying.

He made that rule, that law. He still believed that changing things wasn't right. What was meant to happen, had to happen.

"All the rings the Legion has created and all the projects confiscated from the Locians are to be destroyed. No one, absolutely no one, has the right to change fate," he emphasized.

Connor was furious with Clark, but he couldn't do anything about it. I believed he was the one who came over to him first and asked to go back to save his father.

I hadn't seen Chloe since the funeral and it bothered me. Did she chose to finally mourn all by herself? What was she doing right now exactly? Why wasn't she here, asking Clark to change fate? I knew I would've if I'd lost my husband.

I understood how hard this decision was for Clark. He'd already refused to change the past so many times. He'd refused to bring Jimmy Olsen back. He'd learnt his lesson when his father had died because of him and he sworn never to do anything like this ever again.

I understood his reasons, I really did, but it didn't mean that I wasn't angry with him.

"If we use the ring, if we start messing with the past… every person on this planet will come to us and ask for their dead loved one back," Clark said and his voice faltered. Losing Oliver did hurt him too. Maybe as much as it hurt me. "And I'm sorry, I can't let that happen," he just said, this time his voice was like a whisper and I could notice him shaking.

"He wants nothing more than to go back," I said to Lex who was standing right beside me, "and yet…"

"They are bigger things than this, Jessica, you need to understand it," Lex just said.

"Wouldn't you want me to go back for you if you died?" I asked him.

Lex didn't say anything, but I knew the answer. Of course, he would. And he would do it himself if I was the one to die. He was Lex Luthor, even if he was a good person now, he would still betray everyone in this room just to save me, he would even kill. That made me feel cold inside and I hugged myself with my arms.

Lois was there, by Clark's side, even though she had difficulties with moving and standing for a longer time as she was extremely pregnant.

I knew they should've performed the C section few days back, but Oliver had died and it just didn't feel right. Still, they would have to do it soon, otherwise Lois would give birth naturally and I knew she didn't want to. She'd abandoned that idea after watching a video about it.

"Mom," I heard Lily calling my name and I turned to her as she made her way to us. I took her into my arms, hugging her tightly. "Mom, I can't stand it anymore… Why did it have to happen?" she asked the perfect question. "Connor is a mess and I can't help him…"

"I know, sweetheart, and I am so sorry," was all I could say to her.

Only it wasn't, I realized suddenly.

"Oh, my god…" I mumbled under my breath.

"What?" Lily pulled away to look at me. "What did you just say? I didn't catch it."

"Nothing," I told her. "I need to go. I'll be back."

"What? Where?" Lex asked, frowning.

"Just… trust me… I need to."

* * *

I would've never thought I would use this to save Oliver. I'd always seen myself coming back in time to help Lex, because I wouldn't be able to live without him.

Now I came back to the mansion and ran to a drawer in which I'd hidden the ring.

It was still there.

And I would not change my mind. The world wasn't the same without Oliver Queen in it.

I put the ring on my finger.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 08**

I put the ring on my finger and the world started spinning. I saw flashes of blinding lights and it seemed like I was travelling through a multicolored tunnel. Finally, I hit the ground.

I got up immediately and looked around.

"Oliver, watch out!" I heard Black Canary.

Oh, shit, I thought. Was I already too late?!

I turned around and saw Oliver firing at a Locian, but there was another one, right behind him and he was the one holding the deadly weapon.

Oliver's and mine eyes met and he frowned like he wondered what I was doing here when I wasn't a moment ago. I should be still behind the door. _And I was._

I had no choice but to get to him, grab his hand and put the ring back on. I knew there was no time for warnings, no time for pushing him away from the range of the shot.

The world swirled once again and we hit the floor of my bedroom in the mansion.

Only I wasn't done, I deliberately thought of coming here while still being in the past.

"Jess… what the…?" Oliver started, looking around, completely dumbfounded, but I shushed him and grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper.

I scribbled a message to myself.

I'd just done something bad and I knew it. I took Oliver and wanted to travel back to my time with him.

"Jessica!" he called me by my full name and I could tell he was angry.

"Do you trust me?" I asked him while leaving the paper on my bedside table and turning to look into his hazel eyes.

He just nodded.

"Good," I said and took his hand once again.

He wasn't stupid. He must've figured out that we were travelling in time by now.

We appeared in the very same room, but there was no paper on my bedside table.

Oliver was there with me, so I knew the past me had understood and listened and…

Only I still had the memories of Oliver being killed.

I'd just undone the past, I realized with horrification. And I remembered all of it. I'd done something unforgivable. I'd taken Ollie from before he'd been killed to this time, this reality, a few days later. Would there be consequences? Clark always said there were… And Clark was always the one remembering the alternative past or future, because he'd changed it, I realized and calmed myself down. Of course, I remembered.

I couldn't think about it anymore as it was all so confusing, also I didn't have time to think. The pain in my heart was gone because Oliver was standing right next to me, looking at me and I could tell he was confused too.

"Thank god you're alright!" I just exhaled and threw myself into his arms. What else could I do, really?

It surprised him, but he hugged me back.

"Jess, what was that? Did you just…?" When he pulled away, he looked at the ring that was still on my finger.

I took it off and just threw it on my bed, not wanting to hold it in my hand anymore.

"I'm sorry, Ollie, but yes, I traveled back in time," I answered.

"But… why? Did something happen?"

"Yes, something did happen. The moment I pulled you out… Oliver, you were about to be killed."

There was silence as he was processing those words.

"Wh… what?" he finally asked. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. You were dead and I had… I had to do something!" I raised my voice when tears filled my eyes. "I just couldn't… let you go… leave you… the eternity… and they were all devastated… and… and Clark… Clark confiscated all the rings and forbid to go back… but he didn't know I stole one from him…"

"You came back in time to save _me_?" Oliver made sure, completely shocked. He still couldn't believe it.

"Yes, why wouldn't I?" I asked. Why was he so surprised? I wondered.

Only then I was the one who was in shock, because Oliver just grabbed my face into his hands and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me.

It was so unexpected that I didn't pull away right this moment. I just stood there, trying to figure out what was happening.

When I did so, I woke up, opened my eyes and pushed him away.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I asked.

We were just standing there, looking at each other.

"I…" he finally managed to articulate. "I'm sorry… I… I thought… never mind…"

I had too much on my mind already, so I didn't push him to tell me why he'd done this exactly. I needed to get back to Watchtower. And I was scared what I would find there.

* * *

I opened the door and I walked inside.

They were all there, just like I'd left them when I'd decided I would save Oliver.

"Oliver?!" Chloe was genuinely surprised. "Where have you been?! You just… they said you just disappeared from the battle and… that Jess was with you, but then she didn't remember it and…"

"I'm fine. At least I'm fine now," Oliver just said, avoiding looking at me.

I caught Lex's eyes from across the room and I felt cold dread in my stomach. It was like he knew what I'd done. Like he'd suspected it all this time.

"Jessica?" it was Clark and I felt even more scared on hearing my name being spoken in such a cold tone. "What did you do?" he just asked hard.

"Did you just give the speech about time traveling and how we all can't do that under any circumstances?" I suddenly asked him, making sure. Maybe if he hadn't, then I still…

"Yes, and you weren't here. You called and said you'd be late and we should start without you. Where were you?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"You went back in time, didn't you?" I heard Lex's cold voice.

Why everyone was so mad at me?!

"Yes," I answered because I didn't see any point in lying now. "Yes, I did and guess, what? I would do it again!"

"Jess, you did something inexcusable!"

"Oh, I didn't know I murdered someone!" I answered him back, furious. "Clark, stop acting like this! We all know how many times _you_ did it to save someone and _you _were the one to send the Legion after all!"

"Because it had to be done! It already happened that the Legion came to us! I needed to send them to create the future we're living in now! And you of all people should know what time traveling means! I lost my father!" Clark yelled at me.

"So you blame me! I should've known!"

"No, I don't!" Clark screamed. "I never did! I blame myself! It would've been an impossible choice! I wouldn't have been able to pick you or him and you know it! I never blamed you! I blamed myself, Jor-El and his tests!"

"This is your fucking friend!" I roared, pointing at Oliver. "You would let him die just because of your _rules_?!"

"Well, you took care of that already, didn't you?" I heard Lex's voice and it was like acid.

"What's wrong with you?" I turned to him when frowning. "What did I do that is so despicable? I saved a life!"

"And there will be a consequence you might have to pay!" Clark was unyielding.

"Then it's my problem, not yours!"

"Guys, guys!" Lois, extremely pregnant, was standing by Clark's side, waving her hands. "Quit it! I understand, Clark, that Jess did something bad, but in overall, she did what you didn't have the guts to do. She brought Oliver back because he apparently died, didn't he?"

"Yes, in the battle," I confirmed.

"So all's good. You should just promise you won't do this again, Jess, and we'll be fine."

"Lois…" Clark started in a warning tone.

"This my father's life we're talking about!" Connor suddenly screamed. It was like he'd been in too big a shock just a moment before, when we'd been all arguing. "He was dead and Jessica brought him back. I say we should be happy! Mom?" He turned to Chloe, looking for support.

Only Chloe remained silent.

Seriously, what was going on between her and Ollie? Had it been happening for some time now? Had I not seen it? Or was it all new?

"Oliver, I'm sorry," Clark suddenly said. "I am sorry you needed to hear that. You know that I would never prefer you being dead over being alive, don't you?"

"I do, Clark," Oliver just sighed heavily. "I really do and I do understand your anger. There's no hard feelings."

"Good, because it's really nothing personal. I'm really glad you're here safe and sound. What worries me is that Jessica might pay the price for this."

"Then you're not the only one," Ollie muttered.

"Clark, wouldn't you do this for Lois?" I used my last argument. "Wouldn't you?" I prompted.

Clark just closed his eyes.

"Because you already did, remember?" I kept on talking. "You came back in time to get her blue kryptonite to save her life."

"Only it was different. I didn't change anything…"

"I can't believe it!" I raised my voice again. "Why are you like this?"

"Jess, I will need the ring back," he just said.

"Well, I don't have it on me!"

"Do you have any idea that you betrayed me? Betrayed everything I stand for? I thought you were by my side!" he finally expressed his true feelings.

"Oh, great, you feel betrayed because I did something against your word?! You're not the world ruler, Clark! The fact that you have powers doesn't make you better than us, maybe luckier, but not better! I am your friend and I always have been, but it doesn't mean I agree with everything you say!"

"If I knew Oliver died…" Clark stopped for a moment, "well, he did… ok, then if he was dead, you know well that I would want nothing more than to safe him. If you were dead, I would like to save you and the same goes about Lex and everyone else in this room. But if I did this, then all the people…"

"…around the world would keep coming to you and asking you to bring their loved ones back! I know. I heard it before," I finished after him angrily. "And I know that I did something wrong. I do know it. But it's done, Clark. If you want to change that, you will have to go back yourself and let Oliver die. Can you do this?"

Clark didn't say anything. I knew there was a battle going on inside him and I almost felt sorry for him.

"No," he finally said and looked into Oliver's eyes. "I wouldn't be able to let you die."

Oliver just nodded. He knew it. We all knew it.

"But how…" Clark stopped as he was close to breaking. "How could I come back in time for Ollie if I didn't do it for Jimmy?" He turned to Chloe. "I am so, so sorry, Chloe, that you are the one who seems to be hurting here the most, but… I just… how that would be fair?"

"It's alright, Clark," Chloe said, tears finally breaking in her eyes. "I forgave you a long time ago. I do understand."

"But I'm still sorry," Clark confessed. "And I know I should've told you that years ago…"

"It's really alright," she repeated.

"Guys," Lois cut in. "Guys, I think… I think that my waters just broke… and I will not push that baby out of me!" There was evident fear in her voice.

"I'll get you to your doctor," Clark said, his attention immediately shifting and now it was focused only on his wife. "He can do the c section. Just hold on."

They were gone in no time.

"They'll expect us in the hospital," Chloe said. "I'll go pack Lois's stuff."

The room was slowly being deserted.

Lex disappeared somewhere and I then I noticed him talking to Lily. She was still shaken and Connor was helping his mother now. To be honest, it kind of pained me that this one time Lex hadn't supported me. Why? Was his hatred toward Oliver so strong? Was he mad at me for endangering myself when travelling back to save his alleged enemy?

"Oliver…" I noticed him, still standing where he'd been a few minutes before. Still adjusting to this new situation. "Oliver, I think we need to talk," I said and went over to him.

"I'm sorry, Jess. I guess it was a spur of a moment thing, you know," he told me idly, but I knew him far too well not to notice the fake tone in his voice. "Just like you going back for me, wasn't it?" he asked and then without letting me answer, he added, "I need to go."

"Jessica?" Lex called me. "Are you going?"

His voice was still sounded weird and I really didn't know what his real problem was.

"Lex, what is it? You can tell me. What's bothering you?" I asked when making my way to him. I didn't know how many understatements I could take. And I loved him. I loved him so much and for long that I needed any fights to be resolved immediately.

"You came back for him and that wasn't your job, that's all," he said in a hard voice.

"I came back to save a friend, Lex," I corrected. "And friends do care about each other. I would come back just the same if that was you or Clark."

"No," Lex said and I looked at him like he was crazy, "Lois would come back for Clark," he just finished and turned to the exit, leaving me there, mouth gaping.

When exactly did I find myself in a madhouse?

* * *

In the end, all the rings got destroyed.

I didn't protest. I knew it was the right thing to do, but I still didn't regret saving Oliver.

It all came to past and we didn't mention it anymore.

I knew we weren't and couldn't be any better than the rest of the people on this planet. Everyone lost someone sometimes and the ring couldn't be available to all of them. That would create chaos and destroy the very history of our race.

My friends soon forgot about what I'd done, because their attention was now focused on Lois and her newly-born baby girl.

Now I, Lex, Oliver, Chloe, Tess and Emil, as the initial group, were gathered in Lois and Clark's apartment. She'd called us altogether to tell us something important.

"I'm glad you came!" Lois welcomed us with a baby in her arms. "I came up with a great idea and…" she started, only to be shut down by her husband.

"Lois, you can't possibly be serious," Clark interrupted her. "I will not do that to you!"

"Your part will be all pleasure!" she huffed at him. "Shut up, so I can present it to them!"

"But it's crazy!"

I had to admit, my curiosity was peaked.

"I found a way to help us all and help all the people in this world," Lois started proudly when sitting on a sofa with the baby girl in her arms. "We all know now how fragile a life can be, even our lives," she added. "It was so close… so close and Oliver wouldn't be here with us today."

I deliberately avoided Oliver's eyes and everybody's around me. I was just looking at Lois, that was safe. And at her daughter. More safe.

"Emil told me that this baby will have powers just like her father," Lois informed us. "They are supposed to manifest during puberty just like Clark's did and then… there will be two… well, no Supermen, there will be also a Superwoman in this world."

Tess laughed and I felt lighter as the relations among us weren't so strained anymore.

"The only problem is that both Clark and Lara can't be everywhere at once and… and I am ready to sacrifice myself to raise a super race of children," she finished.

"Sorry, what?" Chloe asked, completely dumbfounded. "Lois, are you actually saying that _you _want to keep producing children with Clark to keep the world protected? You want to breed warriors? But… But you hate being pregnant! You hate children!"

"I love my little girl!" Lois protested, cradling her baby on her laps.

"Well, yes, because she's yours, but with all due respect, I remember you complaining about kids. You always wanted a career instead and now, suddenly, you're willing to give it all up, so… you could have _dozens_ of children?" Chloe was so surprised her eyes were like two big plates.

"Well, I was worried about my body before and after the VA appeared on the market, I don't have to anymore. I'll just keep doing what I've done with Lara. I'll get pregnant, wear blue kryptonite, have a c section and use VA to heal."

"Lois, Chloe's right and this is crazy!" Clark said again. "I won't do this to you. You can't just fix everything. Life never was and never will be perfect!"

"I realize that it'll be a huge sacrifice on my part, Clark, but I want to do this. I will be happy too! You created the VA, you made the fatal dream of humanity come true, so we need to protect their lives now. We can't let them see their loved ones die and them live without them eternally, they will start committing suicides! Can you even imagine what could happen?"

"My answer is still no," Clark said adamantly and folded his arms on his chest.

"I don't see why Lois shouldn't do it," Lex suddenly spoke and we all looked at him in shock. "What? It's not like those kids won't be loved. A mother always loves her children. Besides, they really can do a lot of good. Clark, Lois doesn't have to bear an army like Chloe said. She can have just a few more kids. What's the problem? She probably would have them anyway." He shrugged.

I sent Lex an outraged look. "Is that what you expect from me?" I asked, nearly spitting with anger with him. "To give you more kids in the future just because _we can't die_? Lex, this is… this is just… I'm not some fucking machines for making children!"

"Don't put words into my mouth that I did not say," Lex turned to me. "I am not pushing you to do anything, I'm just saying…"

"Lois, quite frankly, I don't know why you called us here," Tess said, interrupting. "It's your decision, it's always supposed to be your decision."

"If you came up with the idea and wanted us here to say no, so you could feel like you're not failing the people you think you can help, that was a bad call," Oliver noticed. "And if you really want to do this and you want us to back you up to convince Clark, I also think it's not a good idea. It's should be only up to you two. It's your marriage, your possible children. It's not a business transaction." There! That was I perfect answer, I thought.

"But… But… just think about it!" Lois asked pitifully.

"I think that _you_ should think about it. At least sleep on it," Chloe gave her the perfect advice. "Or wait a few years until Lara grows up and then decide. I promise you, Lo, she's just one girl, but she'll still give you hell."

"Oh, that I can totally agree with," I said. "Trust me, Lois, I am the only one here who has two children instead of just one and still, I don't want to do this ever again. They will take all your time and you will not even have time to shower… considering you want to have a dozen of them… I don't think you'll manage to convince Clark to help make them while you'll stop having time to shave your legs."

They all laughed, even Lois and I felt much better I managed to make such a joke, although it was the truth.

"I wish you stopped feeling like you needed to prove something to me, Lois," Clark told her and crouched by her side. "I love you and I will never regret anything. The way of living has changed, yes, but it's not our fault that people still die sometimes."

"We should focus on peace, not war," Oliver said and stood up. "I guess this meeting is over. I'm not really sure what I'm doing here, but anyway… I need to go."

He was acting weird recently and I didn't know the reason. Not that I wanted to talk to him seriously again. Nope, nah ha.

"JeXCorp should start looking for a planet comparable to Earth," Lex said, "just in case. I know people, even if they can live now on other planets, they would like to have an alternative of living on a ground similar to the one they were raised on."

"With that I agree," Clark backed him up, "I just need to talk to the Council again."

* * *

I was sitting in the mansion's study, trying to relax.

The Locians weren't a threat anymore and we were allegedly free of worry.

Only I wasn't. Or maybe I just couldn't go back to the state I'd been in before it'd happened.

I didn't know what was wrong with me, what changed. Maybe time would show, but I hated to wait and see. I missed the carefree woman who'd been so madly in love. What happened to me? In a matter of weeks or so, Lex and our kids had been kidnapped, I'd gotten them all back, but something had changed once and for all. Then Locians had attacked, Legion had been formed, Oliver had died and I'd saved him…

I couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when I'd started feeling different.

I just turned on my tablet to see the news.

The speaker was talking about the imprisonment of the Locians and the suspension of their rights. They'd broken the deal with the Council, so they needed to be punished.

"We might have given up, but we are warning you. There is something coming," their leader was just saying, "Something you will not see coming. Your doom."

What was that? Was it just an empty threat? I started wondering.

The interviewer thought so. She said there was no danger.

And if there was, I would be one of the first to know, wouldn't I? I was so close to Clark, even if he might've still been angry with me.

The door opened and I heard laugh.

I turned in my seat just to see Alex and Imra stepping inside.

"Oh…" Alex stopped on seeing me, "Mom, I'm sorry, I thought you were out. Wasn't dad supposed to take you to dinner tonight?"

"Something at work came up," I said. It was a lame excuse and we both with Lex knew it, yet I was relieved not having to go. I didn't know why, but I didn't feel like going out with him and pretending that everything was alright when apparently something wasn't. The problem was that I didn't know what was it. I needed to talk to him, but he kept avoiding or brushing me off.

"Are you two…" I started, standing up and looking at my son in Imra's company, "dating?" I finally finished the question.

"Well… I wanted to say something in the right moment… I didn't want you to find out like this," Alex admitted. "Sorry."

"Oh, no, you have nothing to be sorry about," I said with a smile and came closer to them. "Actually, I'm happy for you two and I hope it will work out."

It was true. If a woman was to appear for real in my son's life, I would want nothing more than for her to be Imra.

Maybe at least one thing worked out just right in this mess.

* * *

Lex came back from work extremely late again.

"Do you even realize that Christmas's coming?" I asked and I switched the lamp on.

I was sitting in the study when the only light came from the fireplace. I wouldn't let it go this time. We _needed _to have a talk. It'd been way too many years to just give up on us. I shivered on the very thought of it.

"What?" Lex asked, not really getting me and he shed his coat.

"How long will this be going on?" I asked and stood up, facing him. "Lex, it's been two weeks and we live here like we were strangers. Why?"

"Do you really need to ask me this?" He walked over to the liquor table and poured himself some scotch.

I didn't remember him drinking that much before. When had it started?

"Lex, I don't understand," I admitted. "What's your problem?" I came over to him and put my hand on his arm. "We used to be happy and suddenly… we're not anymore. We're growing apart and I want to know why."

"You're so fucking blind," he suddenly rasped and gulped down all the alcohol from the glass.

"Excuse me?!" I raised my voice, struck. I felt like he'd actually hit me.

Then I started thinking.

"Of course," I said bitterly, "It must be hard for you, Lex, to fuck the same woman for over a hundred years!"

"Oh, so you got bored with me?!" he answered back, putting the glass on the table with a clank.

"No," I told him honestly, "I've never got tired of you and us."

"Well, it didn't stop you from saving Oliver. Was life without him so unbearable?" he hissed, his voice full of venom as he swirled to face me.

"Wh… What? What?!" I sputtered in a sudden surprise. "You know well that there is_ nothing_ between me and Oliver! You've been delusional about him the moment you found out I…"

"That you were screwing him when I was dead? Maybe, but I usually don't get _delusional, _as you say, over nothing. I have eyes. Everyone has them, only you seem to be blind!"

"Did you know I was also sleeping with Clark when you were dead?" I asked. It wasn't a good move, but I was so angry with him that I wanted to inflict him pain. How could Lex even do this to me now? After everything we'd been through?

Lex just closed his eyes with a sigh. He must've known, I thought.

"I don't hold all the women you slept with against you, Lex!" I yelled at him. "And I know there might've been hundreds of them before I came along!"

"Exactly, _before_ you came along and I never cared about any of them!" he fought back.

"How was I supposed to know that you would come back from the dead?! Hah?! HOW?! It was impossible and it happened only that one time! No one has ever done it, Lex! _No one_! Even now, because the VA just preserves and heals you, not give you back your life!"

"Well, you were so eager to come in time to save Oliver and it never occurred to you that maybe you should've done the same to save _me_ all those years ago?!" he finally said it. I knew it was the painful truth. The thing that was driving us apart now. That it was the reason for Lex's fury and pain.

"Is that what this is about? Lex… I didn't know about the ring back then and… later on I wasn't in its possession. The thought… it never occurred to me," I answered according to the truth.

"It did," he said bitterly, "it did, but you were a coward. You were scared of what kind of a monster I had become!"

"That is not true!"

"Of course, it is!" he roared and spread his arms, throwing his hands into the air. "I was evil! I killed my father! I almost killed Clark! Who'd know what would've happened if you'd saved me back then!"

"So it's good thing I didn't," I said in a strained voice, "because then you came back anyway and you understood what was right and wrong."

"Don't lecture me."

"You're still looking for an excuse! We were happy over all those years and not even once you mentioned that you held a grudge against me! Then I save Oliver and suddenly, you use him to have a fight! Admit it! You've got tired of me! What should I expect anyway? That you'd be like Clark?! You're Lex Luthor, so naturally I'm not enough for you! And how can I expect after such a long time together that we just keep reliving you coming back to me from the dead?! Changing for _ME_?!" I roared.

There was silence and I just stood there, completely overwhelmed by what had just happened. We'd never before in the whole history of our relationship had such a big fight. There had been minor issues and maybe some bigger ones, but it'd never been for such a reason. We'd always been sure of our love for each other.

"You're either hide it very well or you don't see it yourself yet," Lex said in a strangely calm and quiet voice. "You have feelings for Oliver."

"Lex, you're the only one!" I denied.

"No, you do have feelings for him. I'm not saying you're madly in love with him now, but… something has always been there. You were an item once, after all."

I was left speechless, because actually, I couldn't deny that one. Still, I felt the same for Clark as I felt for Oliver! Why would Lex be so mad about it?!

"Thought so," he said and just… left.

* * *

It was the worst Christmas ever, I thought, and it meant something when I'd been through hundreds of them.

We were all here, in the mansion, for the Christmas party. It was too late to cancel and it was also a tradition, so we had to throw it. We meaning me and Lex or maybe I should say the people working for us, because none of us really was in the mood. Especially with him not talking to me.

I was standing in the corner, watching the quests.

Connor with Lily. Alex with Imra. Lois and Clark with their baby girl. Chloe and Oliver. Tess and Emil. All the friends I needed. And as it turned out, my friendship with them was just destroying my relationship. How did that happen? Why it happened? I was still so confused…

Lex was here too, but he kept his distance and didn't look at me even once. Pity, maybe if he saw me in this red dress… but again, how many times had he seen me dressed sexy, beautiful or elegant? Countless. Maybe something burnt out in him? The sight of him strangely wasn't doing to me what it'd been doing once too. Now I was so numb… I loved him, I knew it deep in my heart, but something had changed and still, I couldn't tell what.

"Jessica?" the was Imra. "How are you? Are you ok?"

Everyone knew about my fight with Lex. It wasn't something we could hide, not when we were known for doing everything together, for being together all the time, inseparable.

"I'll be fine," I just said and sipped red wine from the glass I was holding.

"You know, Alex and Lily are worried about you and Lex," she said. "Is there something we can do to help?"

I just shook my head.

"Frankly, I don't even know what's his problem," I admitted. "I mean, he did tell me, or maybe I should say yell, about Oliver, but… why would he be bothered by it now?"

"I don't know. I wish I did," Imra sighed. "There's something I wanted to tell you. Before Clark ordered the rings to be destroyed… I… and your children… we kind of took a trip to the past," she confessed.

"What? To where?" I looked at her, scared. Was it something they'd done that changed my relationship with Lex so drastically now?

"I took them to see your wedding. I talked to you there," Imra confessed. "You were so happy with Lex. So in love."

"I remember that." I smiled to her with relief. "Funny, because you were really there. I just… I didn't tell you to go back there too, because I felt like it was too much information."

"Well, fate brought me there anyway." She smiled. "It's a relief knowing that I didn't do anything stupid. That I meant to do it."

"Yeah, but… I don't recall seeing Alex or Lily there."

"Oh, they were there, but they stayed hidden. I didn't want to risk anything. You couldn't seen them as they weren't actually born yet."

"I was pregnant with Alex," I remembered, "but it didn't show."

"I didn't know that," Imra admitted.

"Thank you," I suddenly said with gratitude. "Thank you for being there for me. For doing this for my children."

"No problem. I'm just happy I didn't get myself in trouble… Jessica, seeing you and Lex so in love and so happy… I can't believe that it could be just over now. He'll come around, you'll see." Imra took my hand and squeezed gently.

I just smiled back to her sadly.

"There's one more thing… before I came over here, I talked to Lex and I told him this too."

"I'm not sure it'll help, but I appreciate it anyway." I hugged her. "I am so happy you're here, Imra. You have no idea how much."

"I finally understand the connection we have," she informed me, "being in the past, talking to you, even if it was just twice… I feel like I know you better. I wish I could tell you the truth when you asked if we would ever meet again… but I couldn't."

"You did the right thing when not telling me," I assured her.

"Whatever happens, I'm here for you, remember that."

"Thank you." I faked a smile again, because I wasn't really happy about the whole situation with Lex and then I walked toward him.

"Lex," I said and put my hand on his arm, so he would turn to look at me.

"Yes?" His eyes, his voice, they were so cold I felt like it was freezing in the room, but in fact, it was hot.

"Imra told me…" I started.

"Yeah, she talked to me too, but it doesn't change anything, Jessica. It's in the past. Excuse me." He just walked past me and left the party.

I was left standing there, realizing it was under the mistletoe and I felt tears welling up in my eyes.

Did even the greatest loves have its ending? Was that the awful true of this world? Did everything have to end? Was there no forever? Even when you could live forever?

If we hadn't been living for so long, our love would have never ended, I realized, cursing the VA.

Was I working so hard to preserve my love for Lex that I didn't see the flame being slowly extinguished? Dying? Did we forget how real love felt like?

I'd held on desperately, believing there was nothing out there for me but Lex.

Was it healthy? Was it still true?

I would have to find out.

But first… first I needed to forget about him for a while. I needed to pull myself together and then, once I did that, think about him again.

I went upstairs and took my stuff.

* * *

**The end**

* * *

**AN: **Don't worry, my dear JeX lovers! What's happening to Lex, why he's acting like this and why Jessica feels differently about him will be explained in the remaining parts! Also, you will have the choice of how you want this series to end as I have two alternatives!

* * *

**Next part - J e XMination **


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